LA Adventures
by ma531419
Summary: Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan, Kelsi, and Taylor are all best friends living in Florida. Troy, Chad, Zeke, Jason, and Miley are all best friends living in New Mexico. What happens when unfortunate coincidences bring them together in California?
1. Chapter 1: The Parents

Chapter 1: The Parents

Gabriella Montez came huffing into her history class, and boy was she mad. Missing her high school graduation? This was the last straw. She looked at her best friend of 18 years, Sharpay Evans, or Pay as she and only she called her. Pay looked so furious that she'd kill anyone or anything that tried to cross her.

"Out of everything they can miss, they have to choose graduation?" Sharpay shouted.

"I know, tranquila Pay. There's no point in getting upset about it, they wouldn't change their minds if they were here anyways." With that last thought the two girls sat down to begin another boring history lesson.

The morning passed as any other would. Boring class after boring class, pointless lecture after pointless lecture. Finally lunch came around and the gang, which consisted of Sharpay and Ryan Evans, Gabriella Montez, Kelsi Neilson, and Taylor McKessie decided to eat outside beneath the warm April, Florida sun. All of them were seniors at Episcopal High School in Jacksonville, Florida, and they were all going to UCLA next year in sunny California. All of them had been best friends since kindergarten thrown together by their parent's hectic work and vacation schedules, which never seemed to include them. Gabriella and Taylor were on the scholastic decathlon team, of which Taylor was the president/captain. Ryan and Sharpay were extremely involved in theatre or The International Thespian Society, of which they were co-presidents. Kelsi was also involved in theatre, but was even more involved in music. Gabriella, however, had one more passion: dance. She was in the most advanced dance ensemble. She often said that dancing was the best way to let her frustration and anger out because when she was on the dance floor everything else would just disappear.

As they sat there eating chatting about anything and everything Ryan suggested, "Why doesn't everyone move into our house until our parents get back from their vacation in Spain?" Everyone heartily agreed and went back to their lunches and talking about prom, which was in one week.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, high school senior Troy Bolton was shooting baskets in East High's gym, or at least he was trying. For East High's best player he sure wasn't doing so hot. How could his parents do this to him? How could they choose Paris over their only son's high school graduation? Well, they were his parents, and they only seemed to think about themselves. Miley will probably tell them that they should've seen this coming. Miley: he smiled at the thought of the only girl in their group that, despite the odd girly moments was completely one of the guys, their little sister Miley. Troy tried again and missed; out of frustration he threw the ball against the wall.

"Whoa dude, calm down. There's no need to get violent." Bushy haired Chad Danforth and Troy's best friend for the last 18 or so years lightly joked.

"Yeah, I mean we could've predicted this." Reasoned the tiny curly haired brunette beside him. Leave it to Miley to "predict" the future.

Troy sighed and looked around the gym at his family. Well, not really. None of them were actually related, they just felt like it The Fearsome Five some, as they were called in school, consisted of Troy Bolton, Chad Danforth, Zeke Baylor, Jason Cross, and the only girl in their group, Miley Cole. The truth was, they were more of a family to each other than their real families were to them seeing as how their parents always ditched them for either business trips or vacations. But it didn't matter, because in a matter of weeks they would be heading off to Los Angeles, California to UCLA. The boys would be continuing their basketball and Miley would be continuing her theatre. Troy, Zeke, Chad, and Jason were all on the basketball team, which was led by Troy, while Miley was the president of the theatre club.

"I've got it!" Miley suddenly shouted enthusiastically, slipping into one of her girly moments, which made the guys laugh a little. "Why don't ya'll come over to my house and stay until our parents get back from Paris?" She stopped shouting and said barely above a whisper with tears forming in her eyes, "after graduation."

Zeke walked over to her and put his arm around her in his natural comforting, brotherly manner and said, "Of course we'll come!"

"Great!" Miley exclaimed again excited "I'll see ya'll after basketball practice! We'll order pizza or something yummy!" With that she ran out of the gym to her locker.

AN: Okay, so I don't really know what I'm doing, but I hope ya'll kinda liked it. They'll get better and longer hopefully. Let me know what you think!!

Mollie


	2. Chapter 2: The Tragedy

Chapter 2: The Tragedy

Chapter 2: The Tragedy

It had been two weeks since their parents had left for Spain. The gang was living at Sharpay and Ryan's house, and they were generally having a great time. Prom had been fun; they'd gone with a huge group. As they all got ready for school and piled into two cars since they couldn't all fit into one, they headed out for what they thought would be just another monotonous day of lectures.

During their free period they were all sitting in the senior courtyard doing homework when they heard voices, as if on cue all five heads shot up at the same time. Approaching them was Dean Hodges, Dean Philips and two police officers and all their faces held somber looks.

"Are these all of them," asked the younger officer. Dean Philips simply nodded. The five teens stood up confused. None of them drank or did drugs, none of the held parties, hell; they didn't even go to parties. They did nothing wrong, so what could the police want with them.

After introductions were made the elder officer, Lt. Thibault began to speak, "I'm afraid I may have some terrible news."

"May?" Kelsi questioned with a slight tremor in her voice.

Officer Ryan, the younger of the two officers, held up a stack of photographs, each showing pictures of their parents. "Are these your parents?" He asked in a very distant tone. When the teens nodded Officer Ryan continued, "Your parents were on a plane from Madrid to Paris." This was a statement, not a question, yet it was met with confused looks from all five teens.

"You didn't know that they were traveling from Spain to France?" Lt. Thibault asked.

"Typical" Sharpay spat bitterly.

"Pay, not now, this is important." Gabriella lightly scolded.

"Lo siento (I'm sorry) Boo."

"Esta bien (It's okay) Pay. Please continue Lt. Thibault." Gabriella politely said whilst nodding to the officers.

"Well, your parents plane crashed, and I'm afraid there were no survivors." Officer Ryan said sympathetically.

After a moment of shocked silence Sharpay, Taylor, and Kelsi burst into hysterical tears. As Kelsi and Taylor comforted each other, Ryan unsuccessfully attempted to comfort a screaming Sharpay, thus leaving Gabby to get the details of the crash and what needed to be done. When everyone had gone the teens checked themselves out of school with the dean's permission and went back to the Evans.

For the rest of that day and the following day the five friends sat in the living room. They only moved to shower, go to the bathroom, and get food. They all slept huddled together on blankets on the living room floor. They refused to answer the door or the phone. Finally, on the second day Gabriella and Ryan, the two most collected of the group realized that they needed to plan the funerals. Since they had no idea how to go about this they got into a car and drove to school to seek out their favorite teacher, their English teacher for the past two years, Mr. Crandall.

Gabriella's POV

Ry and I entered the school dressed in jeans, t-shirts, and flip-flops. Needless to say we weren't in our school's strict dress code, and we had no intention of remaining at school for the rest of the day. We were met with sympathetic stares as we made our way up to Mr. Crandall's classroom. I swear, the school put him way up by the gym because he is so freaking loud! We walked in during the first period of the day. Unfortunately, that was our class. Ry, Pay, and I were all in Mr. C's first period class. As soon as we walked in the class got dead quiet. My friend Alex came running over to me and threw her arms around my neck. I, of course, hugged her back. She looked me in the eyes, and her eyes were so full of warmth and friendship that I started to tear up.

"I'm here for you Gabster." She said, "Whatever you need just call me and I'll come running." She quietly whispered in my ear.

"Thanks, I might just have to take you up on that." I said while wiping my tears. During this little interaction Ryan had gone up to Mr. Crandall and asked him if we could speak to him privately for a moment. He promptly instructed the class to quietly busy themselves and ushered us into his adjoining office.

"What's up?" He asked in his fatherly tone.

Ryan and I looked at each other, unsure of who should talk first. Neither of us wanted to ask for help, we're both headstrong, actually all five of us are. We only like to ask each other for help. We're so close, we have been forever and we always will be. When one of us has a problem one of the others will have a solution, but this time we were all at a loss, which was a new and awful situation.

I finally decided to speak, so with a wavering voice I quietly said, "None of us know how to go about planning a funeral." I took a deep breath and Ryan squeezed my hand, "We need help" I continued, "and we were wondering if you would maybe help us out a little bit. You know, steer us in the right direction." Mr. Crandall smiled and looked at Ryan and me.

"Of course I will. All six of us need to meet at once he said." Ryan nodded and wrote down his address where we were all staying. After that we left with our heads held a little higher than before. We quickly ran to Ry's car, got in and sped off wanting to get far away from the campus. As Ryan pulled onto the Hart Bridge I said,

"Let's pick up Starbucks. That'll help pick up our spirits a little. Well, maybe."

"Yeah, let's." Ryan quickly pulled into the nearest Starbucks parking lot and we went in. The five of us were predictable, we always got the same thing and we knew each other's orders by heart. We paid for the drinks, got back into the car and drove back to the Evan's house.

Everything was quiet when we got there. We walked in, distributed the drinks and sat back down in the living room with everyone. Finally, for the first time in three days Sharpay spoke, "Where are we all going to live?" Her question was met with silence for about two minutes.

"I spoke to the D.A." Ryan quietly spoke up, "We're all 18, we're no longer minors and don't need guardians, not that we have any, so technically we can live on our own." We all sat quietly, soaking up what Ryan had just said.

"We should live together." Kelsi said, "I'd be willing to put our house on the market and move."

"Same" The rest of us chorused. After debating for a few minutes we all piled into the cars again and drove just down the street to Atkinson & Knight, a real estate firm that our parents used. After a quick talk with Mrs. Atkinson herself, Taylor, Kelsi, and I settled to put our houses on the market. We didn't want to deal with it so we let her have power of attorney over it all.

The next day we began packing up our houses in our spare time to move into the Evan's house. We all lived in the same neighborhood, so we didn't have far to go. Three days later was the first funeral. Each of the funerals was joint, for both our parents. They were four consecutive days in a row at the same church. We just wanted to get them over with, so we took all the pain at once with hopes of it passing. That week went by in a flash and before we knew it, we were as ready as we could possibly be to go back to school to finish out our senior year, parentless.

We all knew that it was going to be tough, we still had about 20 or so days left of school and getting up each morning was hard, but each day the pain subsided a little more. Living together was nice, we all considered each other more of a family than our actual families, but still, it was tough. Our other friends and teachers were supportive and flexible, but we tried to keep as busy as possible. Finally it was a week before graduation. The girls and I did major shopping for dresses for all the occasions and parties that were going to be planned, while Ryan tagged along to occupy himself. We were all dreading graduation because our parents didn't have the opportunity to be there, but we were ready to put on the façade that we were fine, so here it goes, ready or not we're moving on!

AN: Okay, I hope that the story is making sense. Sorry for no Troy in this chapter, but he will be in the ones to come, this was just necessary to set the scene! Please comment and review!!


	3. Chapter 3: Graduation

Chapter 3: Graduation

Chapter 3: Graduation

They were all called up on stage one by one to receive their diplomas. Gabriella gave her speech as Valedictorian, Taylor gave her's as Saludatorian, and Ryan gave his as the class elected speaker. Then it was over, as quickly as it had begun, they were officially done with high school. Forever. That chapter of their lives was closed, although that might not be such a bad thing. After hugging all of their friends and teachers the five of them stood in a huddled circle.

"They wouldn't have been here anyways." Taylor tried to calmly reason. They all nodded in unison as tears silently slipped down the girls faces.

"Oh my g-d!" Sharpay suddenly squealed causing them all to jump in surprise, which made Sharpay laugh. "I have an idea!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"What?" Taylor, Kelsi, and Ryan asked together.

"Let's go on a trip to California!. We need to look at aprartments anyhow seeing as how Ry's the only one who's going to live on campus in the theatre building for his scholarship!"

After a moment of careful consideration all the girls began jumping up and down screaming shopping trip, while Ryan just groaned knowing all to well that he would end up carrying most of the bags. With that they all headed home to pack, all thoughts of graduation parties for the next few days forgotten.

It was an hour after East High's graduation and Troy, Zeke, Jason, Chad, and Miley were all standing around.

"Can you believe it?" Miley said as she looked around with tears escaping down to her cheeks.

"Believe what?" Jason asked, gaining him stares from all of his friends

"That we're done." Zeke patiently answered patiently.

"Done with what?" Jason asked again, which made everyone groan.

"Ya know, you're so lucky that you can play basketball!" Troy said laughing, "And they mean that we're done with high school." Jason nodded his understanding and they all fell back into silence.

Two minutes later Chad suddenly spoke, "We should go on a trip." After a moment of stupefied stares they all began cheering.

"Wait!" Zeke yelled, which stopped the cheering, "Where to?"

They all looked at each other and Troy finally suggested L.A. "After all, we are all going to UCLA in the fall and we need to find apartments since we're not dorming it, well except for little miss drama queen." He joked tossing his thumb in Miley's directon., which ended with her hitting him.

Miley then laughed and sang "Yeah, look out UCLA theatre program, here I come," and with that she did a little dance. All the guys made a little face at her girlyness that the could never get used to, but they would put up with. Finally, when Miley was finished they all headed to their houses to get ready.

The phone rang at the gangs house and Gabby picked it up, "hello" she said slightly aggravated, she was trying to pack after all.

"Gabriella" Peter Steward's annoying voice came on the line, "I heard that you were going to L.A."

"So…" Gabby said curly

"I think that this is a reaction to your parents deaths and that you're not thinking rationally-" With that Gabby hung up. She loved Peter to death, she really did, but seriously, she hated when he did this, it drove her absolutely batty!

The gang quickly got ready and made reservation for a flight out as soon as possible.


	4. Chapter 4: Los Angeles Coincidence

Chapter 4: Los Angeles Coincidence

Chapter 4: Los Angeles Coincidence

In Los Angeles, California

"Do you have reservations?" The cheery receptionist asked.

"Reservations for Evans" Ryan said pleasantly. After a few minutes the five were sent up to their rooms. Sharpay and Gabriella had a room connected with Ryan, while Kelsi and Taylor were down the hall. They were all unpacking and getting ready for dinner at 6:30. It was now 4:30. Meanwhile, at the front desk, another group of five were checking in as well.

"Reservations for Bolton please." Troy said.

"One moment please" the all-too cheery receptionist replied.

"She's too upbeat." Chad complained

"Oh shut it Chad! It's nice to talk to people who are happy!" Miley scolded

"What's upbeat?" Jason asked confused, everyone groaned. Finally after the five minutes that Chad called and eternity they were led up to their rooms. Troy and Chad were together in one room, while Miley was in the connecting one and Jason and Zeke were right down the way. They, too, were getting ready for a 6:30 dinner that night.

It was 6:15 and Gabby was the only one ready. "Pay" she impatiently whined, "we have to get down there or they'll give up our reservations."

"Fine, go. We'll see you down there."

"Gracias Pay."

"De nada (you're welcome) Boo."

Gabriella headed out the door clad in a sexy, short black cocktail dress that came just above her knees. The dress hugged her petite, curvy frame perfectly and showed off just enough cleavage, and with the matching silver heels, her legs looked miles long. Just as she exited the room, her cell phone went off. Looking at the screen she answered it happily, "Hey Tyler!"

"Hey, Gabs, what's up?"

"Oh I'm just…hang on...hold the elevator!" she called, "Thank you." She said to a good-looking kid with an afro, and probably the hottest guy she'd ever seen. "Sorry, I'm back Tyler, what was the question?"

"Oh, just wondering what you're doing."

"Heading out to dinner…why…?"

"No reason, ummmm Gabs, are you sure it wasn't I a bit rash just heading out to L.A. like that." Gabriella's smile immediately dropped off her face.

"Give the phone to Peter" she demanded.

"But…" Tyler tried to protest.

"Now" she ordered. Gabriella was livid. How dare he question their decisions, who does he think he is?

"Hey Gabby!" Peter's annoyingly condescending voice came on the line.

"Who the hell do you think you are Peter?!" She raged "Questioning every…whoa…what just happened?"

"Uh…dunno" The afro boy answered

"The elevator stopped." The other guy stated simply.

"No shit Sherlock" Gabriella spat

"Look there's no need for sarcasm" the cute boy hissed

"Peter I'll call you back later and we will discuss this. You have no right to question what we do. You haven't just lost both of your parents in a plane crash so you don't get to talk. Now go to dinner and catch a movie. I know that you're all just sitting around your house arguing about what to do. Oh, and tell Christine she was right, it was a bad idea to call me because I don't want to talk to you." With that she hung up.

"Chad" the handsome boy said, "the alarm button hasn't worked the first 500 times you've pushed it, it's not going to work now!"

"Well, what else are you supposed to do Troy, stand her twiddling our thumbs?" Chad replied sarcastically.

"Hang on," Gabriella said, she quickly scrolled through her contacts list until she found what she was looking for. "Hello, this is Gabriella Montez, I'm staying in room 528, but I'm currently on the elevator. We've stopped, but the electricity is on…oh, thank you." She turned to the two boys, "They'll have us down in a minute. I'm Gabriella Montez by the way."

"Troy Bolton" Blue met brown as they shook hands and felt an odd, but pleasant shock run through their bodies.

"Chad Danforth pretty lady" Troy and Gabriella both looked at him like he was crazy and then doubled over laughing as the elevator started again.

When it opened on the first floor the three made their way to the maitr'd. Gabriella stepped forward and said, "Montez, reservations for five." The maitr'd looked her up and down, and after giving her a seductive smile walked her to the table. It was 6:40, where were Ryan, Pay, Kelsi, and Tay? Just then Gabby looked up and saw that Troy and Chad were seated next to her. She smiled as Troy got up and walked over.

"Ya know, if you wanted," he began nervously, "we could probably pull our tables together if you wanted."

"Let's go talk to the maitr'd" Gabriella said smiling. After two minutes of reasoning, which eventually led to Gabby batting her eyelashes at the maitr'd, the tables were pulled together.

It was then that Shar and Ry came down fighting over something, but what ever it was they were really into it! "FINALLY!!" Gabby exclaimed

"I know, I know. I couldn't find my necklace and then Ry wanted to wear this ridiculous tie…you know what it doesn't matter, where are Kels and Tay?"

"Here!" Taylor and Kelsi chorused

"Dudes, we're so sorry! The elevator got stuck and her highness here…" a good-looking dark-skinned boy began, throwing a thumb at a pretty girl.

"Excuse me!" Exclaimed the tiny light-browned hair girl in a southern accent.

"Nothing" mumbled the boy, as a dark-haired boy doubled over laughing.

"That's exactly what I thought!" the brunette exclaimed

"Oh, I love your attitude!" Taylor laughed

"Okay, okay, enough with the love fest. Let's sit down and introduce ourselves, because Chad and I only know Ella!" Troy said using the pet name he had already picked up in the little time he had known her.

"Who's Ella?" Ryan asked, "Oh you mean Gem? Wait, who are you and how do you know Gem?" Everyone laughed and introductions were made.

"Where did the nickname "Gem" come from?" Zeke suddenly asked

The five laughed, "Gem and I were joking around and I was saying that she wasn't that important, and she countered that she was more valuable than a gemstone, then it hit me. Her initials are Gabriella Elizabeth Montez: Gem! So she's been Gem ever since. Gosh, that was in what, the fifth grade?"

"Yup!" Gabriella confirmed with a laugh

As the meal progressed it was clear to any casual observer that couples were slowly forming: Troy and Gabriella or Ella as he liked to call her, Taylor and Chad, Zeke and Sharpay, Kelsi and Jason, and Ryan and Miley.

AN: Thanks for the reviews you guys! It means so much! Anyways, yay, Troy and Gabby have finally met.


	5. Chapter 5: A Day Date

Chapter 5: A Day Date

AN: Thanks for all of the reviews they mean so much to me. And thanks to JenFunn for all of the help getting this story up! Enjoy!

The group of 10 newly found friends decided the night before that they would meet the following morning at 8:45 for breakfast and to plan something to do that day.

Gabriella rolled over and looked at the clock on the nightstand, it read 5:45 am. "How on earth am I up at 5:45 in the morning?" She asked herself. After lying there for a few minutes she realized that she was still on East Coast time and that it was 8:45 in Jacksonville, well now it was 8:50. After a moments debate she decided to get up and get dressed. As she was showering she realized that she wanted Starbucks. "There was one on the corner to the right." She remembered. With that she finished getting dressed, jotted a note to a still sleeping Pay, grabbed her room key and headed out the door.

Gabby stepped into the elevator, when the doors were about to close she heard a vaguely familiar voice shout, "Hold the elevator!" As she held it open, Troy entered. "Hey, hey Ella!" He greeted her

"What are you doing up so early?" She asked pointedly.

"I always get up early" Troy countered, "I think the more relevant question is what are YOU doing up so early?"

"East Coast time" Gabby replied smoothly "It's actually 9:20, not 6:20."

"I see, and what are we going to do at '9:20'?"

"Oh, Starbucks, what about you?"

"Same here. I love that it's just down here to the left. Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all, but I think it's down here to the right." Gabriella said certainly as she pointed to the right.

"No…it's to the left." Troy argued. As they stood outside the hotel arguing for 10 minutes Gabriella finally challenged, "I'm going to the right, you may walk aimlessly to the left, I'll be waiting with my coffee and a little happy dance." And with that Gabriella strode off to the right.

Gabby found the Starbucks in no time, walked in and ordered everyone's drinks. When the drinks were just coming up Troy walked in the room sheepishly. "Hey, you were right" he said quietly, "not to the left, to the right." Then to his utter amusement, Ella picked up a coffee and did a little happy dance that made him smile. The two chatted lightly as they got all of the drinks and then headed back up to the hotel. The distributed the drinks to all of the rooms, it was not 7:00. After that they decided to go sit in the lobby where they were supposed to meet everyone else at 8:45.

"He seriously dove into the pool, fully dressed, for a cookie?" Gabby asked incredulously.

"You seriously have no idea about the lengths that Chad will go through for food. It's actually really funny!" Troy said laughingly.

"Still," Gabby said in between breaths, "that's so gross. I mean, wasn't the cookie soggy and filled with chlorine?"

"Yup, and yet he ate it." Gabby and Troy both made faces. They continued to talk about their friends and likes and dislikes until Gabby asked about his family.

"So Troy, what about your family? Are they here in L.A. with ya'll?"

"Ummmm…"Troy awkwardly began. "How am I supposed to explain MY family?" he asked himself. Then aloud he sighed and said, "Dudes over here!" He called to Chad, Zeke, Jason, and Miley.

"I love how you call me a dude Troy. Do I really look like a guy to you?" She asked seriously

"Sorry Miley, it'll never happen again." Troy apologized

"Yeah right, I'll believe that when I hear it." She joked lightly. Just then Shar, Taylor, Kelsi, and Ryan walked into the lobby. They all gathered around the coffee table and pondered where they should eat.

"I vote we just eat here at the hotel. After all none of us know our way around L.A. We can find restaurants today when we look around." Gabby suggested.

"I like Gabby's idea." Troy said.

"You like anything Gabby says." Chad countered, causing Gabby and Troy to blush furiously.

The 10 friends walked into the dining room in the hotel and asked for a table for 10, which seriously annoyed the hostess. "People around here really don't like putting tables together for 10." Troy mumbled, only to get a glare from the hostess. Everyone laughed at Troy who was slightly embarrassed, well everyone except for Jason, who as usual had no idea as to what was going on. The 10 went in line to get the buffet style breakfast and sat down again to discuss what they wanted to do.

"I wanna go shopping!" Sharpay squealed.

"You ALWAYS wanna go shopping Shar. And you ALWAYS drag me with you to carry YOUR bags." Ryan complained helplessly. "Can't we do something else? PLEASE!!"

"Why don't we just wonder around." Kelsi suggested. "Maybe go the beach, the mall, a museum." She listed off

"Or we could just ask the concierge." Miley suggested.

"He'd know what there is to do that's super touristy." Gabby agreed.

"I don't really wanna be too much of a tourist." Taylor whined.

"Wouldn't the concierge know where to get food from?" Chad asked as he stuffed a pancake in his mouth. Everyone began to crack up. But after the laughter died down from everyone else Troy and Gabby were still doubled over.

"A pool huh?" Gabby managed to gasp out.

"Yeah, for a cookie." Troy choked. Everyone looked at them strangely and Chad was seriously confused but he just let it go.

After eating Chad directed everyone to the concierge where he got a list of places to eat. Then they all walked outside of the hotel where they began to argue over what to do. Finally they realized that they were not about to reach an agreement anytime soon. Kelsi and Taylor wanted to go museum hopping. Miley and Sharpay wanted to go to the mall, and Gabby wanted to go to the beach.

"Maybe we should just split up and do what we wanna do." Jason suggested. Everyone liked that idea so Kelsi, Taylor, Jason, and Chad hailed a cab and got sent to the nearest interesting museum. Miley, Sharpay, Ryan, and Zeke hailed a different cab and got sent to the mall. Finally leaving Troy and Gabriella in peace. They went back into the hotel and donned on bathing suits, then went down and asked the concierge where the nearest beach was. They were within walking distance so the leisurely strolled to the beach.

"Wow," Gabby sighed, "this beach is prettier than anything we have in Jacksonville."

"Yeah, our beach is pretty far away so we don't ever really get to see the ocean." Troy said

"So…" Gabby began "What don't I know about Troy Alexander Bolton?" She asked

"I don't know…what do you wanna know?"

"Tell me about your family." She requested

Troy sighed. He supposed he'd have to bring up his seriously dysfunctional family sooner or later. "We're not very close. My parents didn't even come to my graduation, they're currently in Paris and have no earthly idea that we're here. All our parents ditch us for either work or vacation all the time. We last on their list of priorities. I'm sure your parents were so excited sitting at your graduation."

Gabby got really quiet. She should've known better than to bring this up. Now she was going to have to tell him about her parents, or lack there of. "My parents were the same way yours are. In fact, all ours were."

"What do you mean were?"

"Well," Gabby said with tears forming in her eyes, "they weren't coming to our graduation, but the were in a plane crash around a month ago jetting off from Madrid to Paris. We didn't even know they were planning on going to Paris." At this point Gabby was seriously crying and people were beginning to stare. "We all moved into Ry and Pay's house and the only house that hasn't sold is Taylor's. That's my sad fairytale I guess." Gabby sobbed.

"Oh, Ella," Troy said pulling her into a hug, "come here baby girl. It's going to be okay because now you not only have Ryan, Shar, Taylor, and Kelsi, but you have me, Chad, Jason, Zeke, and Miley."

Gabby looked up into Troy's eyes, "Really?" Troy nodded and Gabby kissed him softly on the cheek, "Thanks Troy, you're the best." And they just stood there like that for a while

AT THE MUSEUM

"Chad," Taylor scolded, "don't touch that!"

"Why?" Chad whined

"Because you're going to break it!" Taylor said annoyed

"Jason!" Kelsi fairly yelled, "Don't take pictures! It's against the law!"

"Yes, Kelsi, but why?"

Kelsi groaned, "Because it's illegal!"

"No Chad, that's not real food!" Taylor told him, slapping his hand as he tried to pick up ceramic cookies.

"But it looks real!!" He complained.

"Uhhhhhhh!" Taylor groaned, "Why did we get stuck with the two numskulls?"

"No idea, but I feel like a mother at the mall!" Kelsi said with a little laugh.

The little group continued to make their way around the museum with Kelsi and Taylor constantly having to reprimand Chad and Jason who tried to do stupid things. They finally came into the last room of the museum, which was filled with historical photographs. Jason and Chad began to mimic the people in the photographs.

"Boys," Kelsi cautioned, "be careful, don't get to close to the pictures, you might…" Her sentence was never finished for as she spoke Chad accidentally ran into Jason, who in turn ran into the wall and knocked three photographs on the floor. Security came rushing in to find Kelsi and Taylor yelling at Chad and Jason for being idiots.

"OUT!!" the security guard yelled, and promptly escorted Kelsi, Taylor, Jason, and Chad off the museum premises.

Taylor suddenly yelled, "Never! I repeat NEVER in my life have I ever been kicked out of a museum before! Nor have I ever seen anyone else get kicked out!"

"Maybe we should've warned her." Jason said slowly

"Ya think?" Chad asked, "We got kicked out of the last two museums we went to."

Taylor and Kelsi just stared at them in disbelief, then doubled over laughing.

AT THE MALL

"Oh, let's go in here!" Sharpay squealed pulling the three remaining members of her group into some designer store with lots of sparkles in the window.

"Does she only like things that are either pink or sparkly?" Miley asked Ryan in a whisper.

"Yeah, I'm just glad that Zeke is carrying her bags and not me!"

"No worries, you can carry mine since Troy and Jason aren't here!" She laughed

"Why Troy and Jason?"

"Well, Jason is easy to rope into it and Troy is like a West Coast southern gentleman that'll take them if they look heavy so I won't 'hurt myself'!" She laughed again. "Shar?" Miley asked, "Can Ryan and I go look into some stores I like? You and Zeke can stay here if you'd like?"

"Of course sweetie, have fun. Oh and Ryan carry her bags like a gentleman."

"Aye, aye, sir!" Ryan saluted and followed a giggling Miley out the door, while Sharpay just rolled her eyes.

The shopping continued and the bags piled up, with Zeke and Ryan of course carrying ALL of them! They did this for a few hours and then met up at the Starbucks in the mall to grab a frappacino or whatever they wanted.

Finally at 2 o'clock all the couples began to leave their respective places to meet for a joint lunch at a burger diner that Chad, of course, chose. Troy and Gabby were the first to arrive because the beach was only around the corner from the diner. The grabbed a table for six and reserved the table next to them for four since they couldn't all sit together. "This is always going to be a problem." Gabby pointed out.

"What's 'always going to be a problem'?" Troy mocked.

Gabby hit him playfully on the arm and replied, "Finding tables for 10." Just then Sharpay, Zeke, Miley, and Ryan entered the diner and sat down at Gabby and Troy's table. About five minutes later Taylor and Kelsi came tumbling in laughing hysterically at something that Chad or Jason had either said or done and took a seat at the table next to Gabby and Troy's. The group ordered milkshakes, burgers, and fries and all the guys were glad to see that these were girls that truly didn't care about what they ate. Everyone chatted away and looked at the list that Chad had gotten from the concierge for a different place to eat tonight and began thinking up evening plans.

AN: So there's chapter 5. I hope ya'll enjoyed it!!

Mollie XOXO


	6. Chapter 6

It was 5:45 and everyone was getting ready to go out that night. The concierge, who really didn't like Chad, had recommended a karaoke club. They were all going to dinner at a little restaurant around the corner from the club and then there to either karaoke themselves or watch others try. At promptly 6:15 the entire group met in the lobby and hailed five cabs. Even though they could've fit in less they all wanted to be alone with basically their significant other.

When all the cabs arrived at the little seaside restaurant they went in and gave the hostess their name, Ryan had made a VERY late reservation and the restaurant thankfully took them. They were seated outside and had a gorgeous view of the moonlight hitting the ocean. They ordered their drinks and dinner and were nibbling on bread when Troy spoke up: "I don't wanna ruin any moments, but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. Ella Bella told me about ya'lls parents, and I just wanted to say, that we're all here for you guys." The Jacksonville gang all nodded and said thank you to Troy.

"What happened?" Zeke asked cautiously. The gang looked at each other and nodded simultaneously, then Sharpay told the rest of the group what happened. Right after Sharpay began talking about the crash, Gabby got up and ran down the steps to the beach with tears streaming down her face, feeling the need to get away.

As Gabby got up and ran off, Troy excused himself and followed his Ella on the beach. "It's interesting that I consider her MY Ella." He mused to himself as he saw her collapse on the sand by the ocean sobbing. Troy sat down next to her and pulled her onto his lap. They sat there for a while like that, with Troy just rocking her and whispering sweet nothings in an attempt to calm her down. He really didn't mean to make her cry like this, he just wanted his friends to know that he was there for them, if they ever needed someone. Troy looked down at Ella and noticed that her crying had ceased. Now she was just looking out at the ocean, maybe, he couldn't really tell, her eyes were pretty blank.

"I don't know why it hurts so much Troy" she whispered, "They were a lousy excuse for parents. Constantly forgetting my birthday, or another important date. Missing Christmases and Thanksgivings. They were never there for me. I, we all, learned to fend for ourselves by fifth grade. We're so lucky that we have each other, but it still hurts."

"Whether or not they were good parents is irrelevant Ella. It's the fact that no matter what they WERE your parents. End of discussion, no questions asked, they created you and that's why it hurts so much." Troy said, really out to the ocean.

"I know, it's just, I don't even know anymore. Through the whole process Ryan and I had to be strong for everyone. We planned all the funerals with the help from our English teacher. Now, I just want someone to be strong for me. I don't want to be in charge of everything, I don't want people to lean on me. I want to follow someone else's lead, I want to lean on someone, just for once."

"Ella, you can lean on me." Troy whispered.

Gabby looked up at him, and in a voice that was barely audible said, "Really?" Troy nodded and they continued to gaze into each other's eyes, finally leaning into a sweet, but passionate kiss. When they pulled away they smiled at each other and simultaneously got up to walk back to the table.

When they approached they were holding hands smiling at the other eight people at the table. Their food was there and they sat down to eat quietly. There wasn't much conversation, just the occasional pass the salt kind of thing, but the silence was not at all awkward, it was comfortable.

When the teens ordered dessert, they began chatting happily as they had when they arrived, telling funny stories about themselves and the most embarrassing moments about their friends. Everything was going well until suddenly,

"Hello, Baby G."

Time seemed to stop as all 10 faces went to the young man standing at the head of the table. Gabriella went pale and began to shake convulsively. Troy wrapped his arms around her in an attempt to calm her as she began to shake her head back and forth. The man laughed, manically to the group, and said, "I'm glad I still haven't lost that effect on you."

Gabby turned her head into Troy's chest and began whispering over and over, "Make him leave. Make him leave. Please Troy, make him leave." Troy kissed her temple comforting before looking up and saying, I think you need to leave. The stranger looked at Troy and said: "Why? I'm her boyfriend." The friends from Albuquerque all turned to look at Gabby. She suddenly began to sob uncontrollably.

Troy let go of Gabby and stood up, letting his 6'6" frame tower over the stranger's 5'7" build. All four of the remaining guys, who were all taller than the stranger, and therefore, a little more intimidating, followed Troy's lead and stood protectively around the table as Sharpay took Troy's place rocking Gabby.

"Shhh, Boo, it's going to be okay, I promise, the guys'll get rid of Andrew, I promise."

"Aww, look at all of Baby G's protectors, it's really sweet. Her knights in shining armor. I see you needed some help Ryan old boy!" He laughed. "But you," He pointed at Troy, "seem to be her main squeeze. To bad, you're too little too late." It took all of Troy's self will not to knock the sense, or whatever is up there, out of that guy. Finally, after blowing a kiss to Gabby, and waving to all of the spectators, he left.

The table was silent for a moment, aside from Gabby's sobs. "Troy," Jason said, "take Baby Brie back to the hotel, we'll get the check and meet ya'll back there."

Suddenly Gabby spoke, "No! Ya'll go karaoke. I'm just gonna head back. I don't feel so well anymore."

Troy took Gabby's hands and said, "Ella. Stop being strong. They can go to karaoke; WE'RE going back to the hotel. No arguments." With that he led Gabby to the front of the restaurant and hailed a cab to take them back to the hotel. During the quick ride back, Gabby fell asleep. Troy quickly paid the cab driver and carried Gabby back up to his hotel room bridal style, since that was the only key he could easily reach. He laid her out on the bed and took off her shoes. Finally he pulled a blanket over her and went to sit on the balcony.

"Who was that guy? Why did he call her 'Baby G'? Why did he say he was her boyfriend? What did he mean by I was 'too late'?" All these thoughts ran through Troy's mind as he went back and forth from watching the moon and the stars to sleeping Ella.

AN: Hey! I hoped you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think!"

Mollie XOXO


	7. Chapter 7

So I realized that I should probably be saying this just in case: Disclaimer: I own nothing

So I realized that I should probably be saying this just in case: Disclaimer: I own nothing.

About 30 minutes after Troy and Ella arrived at the hotel again the rest of the gang came in sporting Troy and Ella's desserts in to go boxes. Chad had called Troy ahead of time to ask whose room they were in and Troy had said theirs, so the entire gang was with them. They all entered quietly, fully aware that Gabby was fast asleep. They quickly moved out onto the balcony where they could talk without waking her.

Finally, Zeke asked the question that was on everyone's minds that didn't know Gabriella that well, "Who was that and what the hell did he want?"

Again the Jacksonville gang looked around at each other and nodded, so Sharpay began. "Last year, Boo began receiving phone calls from someone who claimed to be her boyfriend. The phone calls became daily and were soon followed with letters and photographs. She would receive calls during classes, then a few minutes later a note with a picture taken of her getting ready that morning or something would be slipped under the room door. Needless to say, basically everyone in our grade knew that Boo was being stalked. It went on like this for months. Our parents were out of town most of that time and just kept the police working on it. Then, one night when she was meeting all of us out at the Town Center for dinner and a movie, mind you she came from a hair appointment and was alone, she was snagged and raped. A few days later they caught Andrew, that's his name, Andrew Green. He's a creep. He's supposed to be in prison, a mental prison, in New York."

The rest of the gang was silent, just taking it all in. Suddenly Kelsi got up and walked out of the room without warning. Everyone watched as she left, with Jason following after her to make sure she was okay.

"Baby?" Jason asked as he followed her to what was her and Taylor's room. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Jase, I'm fine." Kelsi sighed. She sat down on her bed and opened her nightstand. She pulled out a little black phone book, and Jason watched curiously as she flipped through it until she found what she was looking for. Then she pulled the hotel phone off of the receiver and dialed a long-distance number. "Hello, my name is Kelsi Neilson. My friend Gabriella Montez was stalked and raped last year, and her attacker, Andrew Green, was convicted and placed in your mental institution. We're currently in Los Angeles, California and he just approached us at dinner. We were wondering if he's still in custody or not."

"Oh, no dear. He was released early for good behavior. Last week sweetie. He's all cured so you have nothing to worry about. Good night." Before Kelsi could protest the woman on the other end hung up.

Kelsi stared at the phone in disbelief. "They released him for 'good behavior', they said that he's cured." She looked up at Jason, her big brown eyes filling with tears, "He's out." Jason put his arms around Kelsi and rocked her back and forth telling her it would be okay before they slowly made their way back to Troy and Chad's room, where they would deliver the bad news.

When they entered they walked out to the balcony. Gabby was still sleeping and all eyes turned onto them, "Guys," Jason began, "Kelsi called the institution, they let him out. They said he had good behavior and that he was cured." Troy cursed and Sharpay let out an ear-shattering scream before collapsing into Zeke's arms crying.

"What if he hurts her again? He can't hurt my Boo, you guys have to protect her. I love her. She's my sister. You have to protect her." She kept mumbling over and over again.

Gabby jumped as soon as she heard Pay scream, all thoughts of her own problems out of her head she went running over to Pay who was crying in Zeke's arms. She began to whisper soothing words in her ears along with Zeke until she finally calmed down. "What's going on guys?" Gabby asked in a sleepy voice.

The gang all looked at each other and silently decided that Ryan would break the bad news. Troy wrapped his arms around Gabby as Ryan said, "They let him out Gem. They let him out on good behavior and claimed that he's cured." Gabby stared at him for a good 45 seconds before collapsing in Troy's arms. For the second time that night, Troy placed Ella on his bed. Miley brought out a wet cloth and began to apply it to her head until Ella woke up. At first everything was quiet, then Gabby began crying in Troy's arms saying that she wanted to stay with him that night. He nodded and Chad said that he'd sleep in the twin bed in Ryan's room.

The next morning the somber group of 10 got up and went to breakfast in the dining room. While Gabby was picking nervously at her food her cell phone rang, making her jump about a foot in the air. She answered it with a shaky "hello."

"Hey Baby G." Came the smooth voice on the other in. Gabby gasped as he continued, "Just wanted to say good morning and that I've missed you. Love you Baby G." With that Andrew hung up.

Gabby shakily put the phone on the table, "It was him." The gang all looked at each other and quickly finished eating. Without having to say anything, the 10 made their way to the front of the hotel to hail a couple of taxis. On their way out the lady at the front desk handed Gabby an envelope. She opened it to find a letter:

My Baby G,

How I've missed you over the past year. I've not stopped thinking about our amazing night under the stars. Well, it was amazing for me because I actually wanted it. If you could only know how my love for you has grown over the past year. Ah, but alas, your boyfriend and his stooges will not be able to protect you. Remember that you belong to me. I was your first and I'm to be your only.

Love,

Your Boyfriend

Also in the envelope was a picture of Gabby at the beach. She looked at Troy who had read the envelope over her shoulder and nodded, sliding it in his back pocket. He was furious, no one messed with Ella like this, no one. The taxis swiftly took them to the police station.

The 10 paid their cab drivers and entered the police station, a pale and slightly sobbing Gabby wrapped up in Troy's arms. In fact, all of the girls were pale. "This just can't be happening again." Taylor thought. "Gabs just doesn't deserve this." Kelsi told herself. "I hate that this creep is after Gem, my little sister." Ryan helplessly yelled to himself. "My best friend, Boo, is being stalked AGAIN, by the same creeper that took away the one thing she thought she was in control of!" Pay screamed inside.

"Can I help you?" Asked the officer behind the counter.

"Yes," Chad began, "we'd like to report a stalker." He then proceeded to tell the officer all that happened last year with Andrew, with the others chiming in every now and then, motioning to Gabby who was sitting on Troy's lap on a chair in the corner. All the while, Troy gently rocked her and whispered comforting things to her. They then told the officer about their phone call tot the institution and showed them the letter and photo, as well as the number he had called from. About 45 minutes later they left after the police promised to do everything the can to find Andrew. The friends made their way to the beach, where they just walked silently each of the couples at their own pace, all wrapped up in their own thoughts, waiting to see what would happen next.

"I never dreamed he would come back." Gabby thought, "I thought that my life was finally coming together, meeting Troy and all. Turns out I was so very wrong. Life can only be perfect for so long, then it has to throw you a curve that you have to deal with."


	8. Chapter 8: I Love You

Chapter 8: I Love You

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

As the gang made their way down the beach they ran across a little shack. "I'm hungry…" Chad complained.

"You're ALWAYS hungry!" Miley and Taylor said at the same time. Everyone laughed, even Gabby.

"Who's always hungry?" Jason asked. Everyone groaned and Kelsi gave him a small peck on the cheek.

"It's okay honey, I still love ya!" She said lightly, causing Jason to blush as the rest of the group chorused, "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Why don't we see what that little shack is?" Zeke suggested. They all agreed and made their way inside. It turned out to be a little beach diner. Unfortunately the tables could only seat four. So Zeke, Chad, Sharpay, and Taylor took one table, inside on Sharpay's insistence, Ryan, Jason, Miley, and Kelsi sat at another, also inside, and Troy and Gabby took an outside table, because Gabby wanted to sit near the ocean.

"The ocean calms me." She told Troy, "It makes me feel like everything will be better."

"It will be. And I'm here for you, forever and always." He added the last part quietly but Gabby heard it. She quickly stood up and went to sit next to him, instead of across from him. They looked at each other and shared what started out as an innocent kiss, but soon turned passionate when Troy's arms snaked around her waist, pulling her onto his lap, as she began to run her fingers through his hair. Troy's tongue soon ran on Ella's bottom lip, begging for entrance to her mouth, which she eagerly admitted. Their tongues battled for domination until they finally had to break apart for air. They smiled at each other and turned to face the water, with Ella still sitting in Troy's lap. They ordered a basket of fries and milkshakes and just sat there enjoying each others company, occasionally stealing a kiss, as the others watched them from inside.

"They're so sweet!" Sharpay squealed.

"I know right?" Taylor said clapping really fast.

"I've never seen Troy this enamored with a girl before. He's usually a statue. Totally in check with his emotions, but with Briella…not so much. He's totally fallen for her."

"You know what I think Tay?" Sharpay suddenly asked, an idea flashing in her mind

"What Shar?" Taylor nervously asked her friend

"We're going to move out here anyways right?"

"Yes…for college."

"And we were planning on getting two apartments in the same building so we can keep our dogs. And Ry was going to live in the theatre dorms…" Taylor nodded in agreement. She already knew all of this, they had planned it last summer. "Well," Sharpay continued, "what if we put our house on the market and moved out here now? We have nothing keeping us in Jacksonville, no family or anything, we ARE our family. What if we just move here. I mean I don't know about you but I really don't want to leave."

Taylor thought about it for a moment before saying, "I agree. Let's talk to Kelsi, Ryan, and Gabby about it. Besides we were planning on apartment searching while we were out here anyways."

A few minutes later the tables paid for their checks, walked outside, and took cabs back to the hotel. When they arrived there was another note for Gabby. She read it and looked at the picture of her kissing Troy at the diner. With tears in her eyes she swiftly grabbed Troy's phone, since she had left hers with the police and dialed the station. They rushed a car out to the hotel and questioned all of the staff that had been around. Earlier they had called the JSO (Jacksonville Sheriffs Office) and they knew that this guy meant business. About 40 minutes later they left and Gabby decided that she wanted to go lie down, today had been emotionally draining for her. On their way up to their rooms Sharpay broached the idea of moving out to L.A. early. Without hesitation Ryan, Gabby, and Kelsi agreed, and it was decided upon that tomorrow they would go apartment hunting.

That night the gang, minus Troy and Gabby went to the karaoke club that they had been planning to go to the previous night. Troy and Gabby decided to sit in Troy's room and order room service and a movie on On Demand. They had a quiet night snuggled up under the blankets in each other's arms. They fed each other and occasionally stole a kiss as they watched the Italian Job. For the moment life was perfect. Finally, Troy broke the silence, "You know, " he began, "we were all going to move out to L.A. too, all of us except for Miley were going to live in apartments so we can keep our dogs. Miley has to live in the theatre dorm with respect to her scholarship. Maybe we could all get apartments in the same building. It would be nice to get our of Albuquerque early. Our parents wouldn't care so maybe we could all move around the same time…and stay together?"

"I'd like that Troy. I don't want to lose you anytime soon."

"Oh, yeah, so you were planning on losing me? Great, feeling the love in this room." Ella stuck out her tongue at Troy, who swiftly caught it in his mouth in a passionate kiss. When they pulled back, Ella said: "I never want to lose you Troy. I've only known you for a few days and already I love you."

"I love you to Ella Bella." And sealed it with a kiss.

AN: Hope you liked it! Read and Review!!

Mollie XOXO


	9. Chapter 9: Apartment Hunting

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 9: Apartment Hunting

The next day the gang rose bright and early for breakfast in the dining room before apartment hunting. None of them really knew what it took to find an apartment. Sharpay, Ryan, Taylor, Kelsi, and Gabriella knew how to sell property, but not buy it. So they went to the concierge for help.

Chad, deciding he wanted to bother the nice lady, went to ask about real estate people around the campus. The lady groaned when she saw Chad approach, his Afro bouncing as he walked. When he made his request she swiftly gave him a list of 5 real estate agents and shooed him away from her desk. The gang decided to just make rounds to each of them. The first three places they went to were not close to the UCLA campus at all, so they didn't even bother going in. The fourth was very run down, but the fifth, was close to the campus and nice looking. The 10 went in and were soon ushered into the office of Mrs. Marie Smith. She appraised the group and realized very quickly from the way they dressed and presented themselves that they were from well to do families, and would bring in a nice income.

"We're looking for four apartments" Troy began, "in the same building near the UCLA campus." The lady looked through her books and made a list of apartment buildings, then she scheduled an appointment to meet with them in two days at 1 o'clock to visit each of the buildings.

As the exited the building Miley suddenly stopped short. "Oh my g-d!"

"WHAT!?" Everyone chorused

"Our parents have no idea that we're currently apartment hunting, let alone that we're in L.A.! We have to tell them that we're going to spend their money to buy apartments!"

"Holy shit!' Chad exclaimed running his hands through his enormous Afro. "We so need to call them cause we're in trouble!!"

The gang made their way back to the hotel and went and sat in Gabby and Sharpay's room. "Who's first?" Gabby asked

" I will." Troy volunteered. He picked up his cell phone and slowly dialed his dad's cell phone number. After the phone rang a few times a deep voice came on the line.

"Jack Bolton."

"Hey dad. It's Troy."

"Hey son, what are you up to?"

"Ummm, well, the gang, we umm, we're in L.A., apartment hunting, for college." Troy managed to stutter out.

"Okay! How about this son, I'll transfer money to your account and then send our attorney out to L.A. to make sure you get a good deal. Whatever you need, just let me know." Troy was completely dumbfounded by his dad's response

"Thanks dad. I'll call you later. Love you guys, bye." With that Troy hung up. Troy quickly accounted what his dad had said to his friends who couldn't believe how well that had gone.

As it turned out, everyone was surprised by the positive reactions of their parents. Since they all shared the same attorney, the same man: Richard Wright, would be down in two days for the meeting with the real estate agent.

TWO DAYS LATER

The group of friends met at 1 p.m. at the apartment complex. The place was nice looking on the outside, so they hoped that the same would be said of the inside. When they got out of their cabs the saw that Mrs. Smith and Mr. Wright were already outside making small talk. The quickly joined in and made their way up to the four apartments. The complex was a block away from the beach and two blocks away from the UCLA campus. In all earnestness, it was the ideal location. Plus, a huge thing for the guys, there was a basketball court right next to the building!

After talking and thoroughly inspecting the four apartments the teens knew that this was where they wanted to live. They made their ways back to the real estate office where everything was settled for the signing. They decided that they would buy the apartments because the deal was good. A few hours later the 8 teens were proud to own apartments.

They went out to lunch to celebrate their purchase and realized that they really wanted to move in, and stop paying at the hotel. "Well, I vote that we go back to Jacksonville and begin packing!" Gabby cried enthusiastically.

"Oh!" Miley squealed. "What if we go back to Jacksonville with you and help you pack. Then ya'll can maybe come help us pack in Albuquerque!" Everyone loved the idea and decided to see when was the next plane they could catch to Jacksonville.

When they arrived at the hotel they were immediately ambushed by the receptionist who had two letters for Gabby. She took one look at the handwriting and knew who they were from. She stuck the letters in her purse and decided to just give them to the police, she really had no interest in reading them.

When Sharpay entered the room she noticed that the light on the phone was blinking, indicating that they had a message. As it turned out, there were three messages for Gabby from her "boyfriend". Aggrevated, Gabby called the police and asked them to come straight up to the room.

When the police arrived they taped the messages and took the notes. When they left everyone else came to the girl's room to see what was up with dinner. "What do you guys think we should do?" Kelsi asked

Chad pulled the piece of paper out of his pocket with all of the food places and began to look down the list. After a moment of thought, were he fought with himself, he chose a nicer restaurant where there was dancing, thinking the girls would have a good time. "So dinner and dancing?" He asked, all the girls agreed enthusiastically except Gabby who stood up and strode out to the balcony were she leaned over the edge looking out to the sea.

Troy immediately followed Gabby outside and wrapped his arms around her tiny waist, "What's up Ella?"

"He just won't leave me alone Troy. He's everywhere, constantly watching me. Why me? Why is he so…obsessed with me?"

Troy sighed, feeling her pain, "I don't know baby girl, but I do know one thing, you're stuck with me now, and he's not going to hurt you."

Gabby looked up at Troy and placed a small kiss on his lips as her way of saying thank you and contentedly leaned into him as the couple continued staring out at the sea.

At 7:30 the group met in the lobby to catch cabs to the beachside restaurant. They all piled in and went up to the hostess. "Reservations for McKessie." Taylor politely told the lady behind the desk. They were led to a table outside next to the dance floor. After they ordered their drinks Troy turned to Gabby, "Would you like to dance?" He asked her in an English accent.

"Why I'd love to." She answered happily in the same accent. They two got up and began to slowly dance to the jazz music and soon all five couples were dancing the night away. After they ate they decided to take a small stroll down the beach, all of them holding their shoes so they could walk in the water.

By the time they got back to the hotel it was after midnight. The gang had a flight out of L.A. the next evening at 5, so they could pack in the morning before they headed out for Jacksonville.

AN: I hope ya'll liked this chapter! There should be some drama next chapter!

Mollie XOXO


	10. Chapter 10: A Warm Welcome Home

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 10: A Warm Welcome Home

The gang landed in Jacksonville, Florida the next morning. They went outside and hailed a couple of cabs and then headed to their house. They all walked in and were absolutely exhausted from traveling all night. None of them had slept well on the plane.

"Before we start packing can we take a nap?" Kelsi asked with a yawn. Everyone agreed and headed up to their rooms. Sharpay led Zeke to her bedroom. He walked in and stopped short at the sight of the sparkly pink room.

"Holy shit. I've never seen so much pink in my life." He looked incredulously around the room.

"I know right? Isn't it amazing?" Sharpay asked unfazed by his reaction.

Everyone else in the house rolled their eyes as they made their way to the long desired beds. After sleeping for a couple of hours the teens got up and decided that they were hungry.

"We should go to San Marco Deli." Gabby suggested noting that it was only 1:30.

"Yeah, but let's get the dogs first. They probably want to come home." Taylor commented. Taylor and Chad went to Creature Comfort, where the dogs were being boarded, and picked up the dogs. When they got home the Albuquerque gang got to meet the girls' dogs. Gabriella had a Portuguese water dog: Gilligan (yes, that's my dog if you haven't guessed), Kelsi had a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier: Maizie (also my dog), Sharpay had a tiny terrier: Boi (had no idea what kind of dog Boi is), and Taylor had a Standard Poodle: Sofie (my best friend's dog!). After the proper greetings the gang piled into their cars to head to San Marco to get the best chicken salad in the world (actually really true lol).

When they walked into the little deli they were shocked to find their friends there. Peter looked up and said, really loudly, "Gabriella?"

Gabby heard her name and cursed, "Shit! Pay, look who's here." She quickly plastered a smile on her face as the table of her friends turned to look at her. The table consisted of Peter, Tyler, Kevin, Carl, Christine, Cameron, Taylor, Alex, Tess, and Meghan. Kelsi looked at her new family and nodded. She then led them over to the table. She quickly led the introductions and the guys looked skeptically at Troy, Chad, Jason, and Zeke.

"So you go to L.A. and you bring back a bunch of beach bums?" Carl said sarcastically.

"What on earth do you know Carl?! Just back off. We're not going to be here much longer anyways." Troy gently wrapped his arm around Gabby's waist.

"Ella it's okay, we're not offended." Troy whispered

"Well I am." She responded and quickly headed towards the front of the deli to get in line.

"Look," Peter began, "there's no need to get bent out of shape. He only speaks the truth. Ya'll took off without a word."

"Yeah, so what is it to you?" Sharpay yelled, getting looks from the other clientele. "We're moving in a couple of days so you won't have to worry your pretty little head about us for much longer." With that she stomped off to Gabby and Troy.

"Sorry, stress…" Zeke lamely apologized, then followed Sharpay.

"You're moving now?" Meghan asked, "And where do you think you're going to live?"

"We have apartments in L.A." Kelsi answered sharply, it surprised everyone. The table got quiet for a few minutes then Taylor spoke.

"It's nice to know that ya'll are so supportive of our decisions after what we've been through. Instead of being nice, you're all just patronizing. Bye." With that Taylor, Chad, Kelsi, Jason, Ryan, and Miley went to stand in line with Gabby, Troy, Sharpay, and Zeke. They decided to order their food to-go and eat at home.

When they got home they set up a picnic by the river and ate, watching the waves lap up onto the bulkhead. The dogs played contentedly, simply happy that their owners were home with them. After they ate the decided to go buy packing boxes and begin to go through the house. After Ryan and Chad got back with thousands of boxes they sat down to debate about what would go and what they would keep.

After arguing for an hour and a half, they decided to hit their bedrooms last and divide up the house from there. Troy and Gabby tackled the living room, Chad and Taylor the kitchen, Sharpay and Zeke had the river room, Kelsi and Jason had the piano room, and Ryan and Miley had the den. From there they were going to systematically divide up the hallways and the "playroom".

After they packed up everything in those rooms they decided that they'd stop for the night. After a long fight between Ryan and Sharpay about what to do for dinner they decided to go see a movie and catch dinner at Chiles before hand. They looked up movie times and picked the movie 21 (really good btw!). When they got home that night it was 11, they decided to go to bed and they'd figure breakfast out in the morning. So they all climbed the stairs and fell into a deep slumber.

The next morning they decided to go out to breakfast, as Kelsi had pointed out, "There's no reason to buy food if we're leaving in a few days anyways. After breakfast they headed over to the reality office and put the house up for sale. They gave power of attorney up to the agent and left satisfied that everything would go well. When they got home Ryan got on the phone with a moving company to have everything shipped to L.A. They had exactly two days to finish packing up the house, good will would come over in two days and remove anything they didn't want, which was basically furniture.

"At least we can take some of the furniture to L.A." Taylor said brightly

"Yeah, that's one expense we don't have to worry about." Kelsi replied just as cheerfully. The gang started to finish up packing and by the time lunch came around the only thing left to do was the bedrooms. The girls decided to run up to Publix to pick up some subs and sodas, while the guys shot some hoops. After they ate, they got back to packing and surprisingly finished everything. Once they were finished they sat in the living room and began to reminisce about their good times in the house.

FLASHBACK

Four year old Gabriella Montez timidly followed her mother and father into Mrs. Taylor's kindergarten class. After her parents left she sat down in a corner and pulled out a coloring book and a pack of crayons. While she was coloring a pretty little blond girl made her way over, all the while dragging a blond boy with her. "I'm Sharpay! What's your name?" She asked

Gabby looked up timidly, "Gabriella." She whispered

"Cool! This is my brother Ryan. Wanna color with us?" Gabby nodded and the three were close friends ever since then.

It was the first day of First Grade and Gabby, Shar, and Ryan were all in Mrs. Steven's class. As they sat on the playground during recess they saw a little dark skinned girl reading. Gabby got up and walked over to her: "I'm Gabby. What's you name?"

The girl looked at her and shyly replied, "Taylor." The girls became fast friends with their shared love of reading, which led to Ryan and Shar also befriending her.

Finally in Second Grade a new girl came to RPDS, she was actually new to Jacksonville. Mrs. MacCulley, the gang's teacher introduced Kelsi to the class about a month into school, when she transferred from Texas. Ryan looked at Kelsi and said, "Sit with us at lunch?" She nodded happily and ever since then the five have been inseparable.

END OF FLASHBACK

As they all laughed at the gang's funny stories they began to think about food.

"I have an idea! Let's order a pizza and watch movies and gossip and do our nails!" Miley said jumping up and down on Ryan's lap

"Oh, like a sleep over when we were younger!" Shar squealed, likewise jumping on Zeke's lap.

"Oh let's not!" Chad replied jumping up and down causing Taylor to go flying with him. Everyone laughed except for Sharpay and Miley, who liked their idea.

Gabby laughed, "Let's not make it too girly, we wouldn't want to scare the guys away." She said in a baby voice. All the guys glared at her but said nothing. Even though they hadn't known each other that long they knew if they responded they would get sucked into some sort of bet that would only lead to them getting their nails painted or something equally as painful.

They decided to order pizzas and watch movies until they all fell asleep in sprawled out through the living room.

The next morning at 10 the moving people arrived. After three hours they finally left with the boxes and furniture that was to go to the apartments in L.A. Before the gang could even bother to stop for lunch the Good Will man arrived and was told what he was taking, which was everything left in the house, with the exception of their bags and the dogs of course.

"We'll leave the key with the real estate agent, and she'll help you, then she takes the key and will sell the house hopefully." Sharpay instructed the man. He nodded and left. Finally the gang sat down to figure out what they wanted to do for lunch and dinner. Their flight left the next morning at 6 am.

"Oh my g-d! The cars!" Taylor exclaimed. The gang looked at each other, they had five cars, and what were they supposed to do with them?

"Hey, it's only 2:15, let's go to the car dealership and sell them. Then we can take a cab home and a cab to the airport tomorrow. Then when we get to L.A. we can buy cars." Everyone agreed and piled into their cars to head to the dealership. Finally at 5:30 they left in cabs to go home. They sighed and decided to order Chinese for dinner. Finally, they were ready for bed. They sprawled out again on the living room floor and fell asleep.

At 3 am the next morning 5 cabs showed up at the front door. They piled all of their stuff into them and headed to the airport to catch their 6 am flight to L.A., their new home. When they landed they took, yet a gain, 5 cabs to their apartments and began to unload.

After they had that stuff put in their apartments they decided to go car shopping. The five decided what kind of cars they wanted and headed to the dealerships.

AN: Here's the next chapter I hope you liked it! Sorry for the wait, read and review please!

Mollie XOXO


	11. Chapter 11: Car Shopping

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 11: Car Shopping

Gabby and Troy hopped into a cab and headed off towards the Saab dealership. Gabby knew exactly what she wanted: a polar white 9-3 convertible. Even though it was small and they couldn't all fit into it, she loved riding with Gilligan with the top down, it was one of her favorite ways of relaxing.

When they arrived at the dealership she was happy to find a nice sale going on. She and Troy walked around and found a salesman. First he tried to sell her on the most expensive car. Troy interrupted him before he could go get the keys to show them the inside, "We know what we want. A polar white 9-3 convertible. Do you have one here in the lot?" The man nodded reluctantly and went to grab the keys. He showed them the inside and Gabby noticed that it had OnStar and XM Radio.

"It's the latest model too." He replied, Gabby nodded and said,

"I'll take it."

Sharpay dragged Zeke to the Ford dealership. She wanted a Mustang. Her last one had been pink, but the down side was it had to be ordered. She wanted one off the lot, "maybe a blue or red…" she thought to herself.

When they arrived Sharpay led Zeke to the doors of the dealership and waltzed in like she owned the place. She quickly found a sales person and instructed him to show her all of the Mustang GT Convertibles. As they were walking the parking lot she suddenly screamed, "Oh my g-d Zeke! It's perfect. Well," she considered, "close to perfect!" With that she ran over to a Torch Red Convertible. "I want this one." She said like a child.

The sales person nodded and led her to an office in the dealership to make the deal, all the while Zeke just followed thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?"

"Don't you want to test drive it miss?" The dealer cautiously asked, he knew right away not to mess with this girl, she could bring trouble…

"Uh, Zeke? Do you think I should test it?" Sharpay asked

"Definitely, not that there's anything wrong with it, but you want to double check that you like it before you spend the money on it." He answered her without hesitation. Sharpay thought about what he said for a minute before extending her hands for the keys.

Taylor led Chad to the Lexus dealership, unlike her friends she knew that she would want a more practical car, then she began asking herself if maybe she's want a convertible since this was L.A. "I had a RX09 back home, Chad." She told him, "But maybe I want something sportier here."

Chad noted her confusion and said, "Hey, let's look and test drive a couple of them and we'll figure out what you want."

While they were at the dealership they tried out a bunch of different cars but none of them Taylor seemed to like. Finally she decided to test drive the RX09. As she drove it she sighed and said, "I love it, but I think I liked the ES08 the best." Chad smiled at his girlfriend, was she his girlfriend. "Hm" He pondered, "I think I should ask her and make it official."

"Taylor, I hate to sound all jr. high, but will you officially be my girlfriend?" He gave her his best smile, which made Taylor melt. She nodded enthusiastically and after they pulled up to a red light leaned over and gave him a quick, but love-filled kiss.

When they pulled back into the dealership they went to look at ES08 models and colors. After looking at all the colors they had she decided on the Black Sapphire Pearl, which she thought looked very classy. This made Chad smile.

Kelsi and Ryan made their way to Audi dealership. Kelsi had loved her Audi, it had been a black A4 convertible. She thought it would be perfect for L.A. When they arrived at the dealership neither of them really knew how to deal with the sales people. Luckily a very nice, well-informed lady came to help them: Sarah.

Kelsi told her what she wanted and Sarah showed them around. Finally they came upon the black A4 convertible, which was just what Kelsi wanted.

Ryan and Miley decided to head for the BMW dealership. "A convertible Miles!" Ryan said giddily. "That's what I love, riding with the top down! What do you think?" Miley giggled and agreed, that was what she could see her Ryan in, a convertible. In fact the only one of her new Jacksonville friends she couldn't see in a convertible was Taylor. She was a little too conservative for that.

When they arrived they found a salesman and told him that they wanted to test drive all of the convertibles. After about an hour or so of this Ryan finally chose the 328i Convertible in Montego Blue Metallic. It was completely outlandish, but completely Ryan!

Finally all five couples headed back to their apartments, clad with their new cars.

AN: Okay I know this is really short, but I wanted to do this for some strange reason…who knows. If I can figure it out I'm going to post their cars on my profile…we'll see!

Mollie XOXO


	12. Chapter 12: Making Memories

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 12: Making Memories

The next day came for the 10 friends as they sat on the floor of Gabby and Sharpay's apartment eating a to-go order that Troy, Chad, and Ryan had picked up from Patty's Diner as a surprise. "The moving people will be here at 10:30" Gabby commented. Everyone nodded.

"It'll be nice to have furniture" Kelsi replied. Everyone was still a little jet-lagged.

"I can't believe we did it." Sharpay said. She was met with nine questioning looks. She rolled her eyes and responded, "Actually made the move to L.A. I mean think about it, we're free. We're done with high school, we don't have to deal with our 'friends' who never understood what our life was about anyways, we're free." Everyone responded with "ohs" and agreement.

The group quickly cleaned up their breakfast mess and got ready for the movers to come, "You know, it's lucky we found you guys." Taylor said out of the blue

"And why is that?" Chad asked

"So you guys can lift all the heavy boxes." With that she swaggered out of the room, leaving a very stunned Chad in her wake. The other girls laughed and agreed that the guys would be carrying the heavy things that couldn't fit in the elevator up the four sets of stairs.

"Better watch yourself Montez. You might just be doing the same for us next week." Troy replied off handedly

"I'd like to see you try Bolton, since we're on a last name basis." Suddenly Troy got a look in his eyes that scared Gabby and she began to run around the apartment as Troy chased her with outstretched arms. She began screaming loudly as Troy wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her around in a circle as the doorbell rang, indicating the arrival of the moving people. "Troy." Gabby whined, "You need to put me down. The movers are here, do you want me to have a furniture less apartment?" Troy thought about this for a moment before nodding his head and replacing her feet on the floor.

Sharpay made her way to the door to let them in. For the next two hours the movers and the guys moved stuff from the van to the fourth floor, where the girl's two apartments were located. The girls, on the other hand, stayed in the cool air conditioning and simply moved the boxes and pushed the furniture to the correct apartment.

When the movers finally left the girls begged the guys to help them set up the furniture. About an hour later that was done. "See how much faster this goes when you guys help WITHOUT complaining." Kelsi asked lightly.

All the girls giggled and the guys groaned. "Just think!" Miley exclaimed "We'll help ya'll organize your apartments when all this comes next week!" This was followed by a little happy dance, which had her friends rolling in fits of laughter. "What?" She stopped dancing and was utterly confused by what was going on.

"Nothing love." Ryan replied giving her a peck on the lips, which made her smile.

"Aw aren't the love birds just so cute?" Chad said making little kissing noises, which earned him a smack on the back of the head from Taylor, "Geez woman, why do you have to hit so hard?" He asked rubbing the back of his Afro.

"At least you have your hair to soften the blow, me I got nothing." Zeke said wisely, which made Sharpay smack him. Troy, Jason, and Ryan began laughing at their friends.

"Damn, we're the smart ones, we choose the non-violent girls." Jason said which made the friends laugh, seeing as how this was coming from the guy that asked how they got the chocolate in chocolate cake.

"Food." Chad said. Everyone nodded and decided they should go grab a bite to eat. "Let's go to that diner on the beach!" He suggested with way too much enthusiasm.

"A cookie?" Gabby asked

"A cookie." Troy replied they both began laughing causing their friends to give them weird looks. Finally the friends made it out the door and to their cars to go eat.

"After we eat we need to go appliance shopping." Gabby said as she drove to the diner. "We need a fridge and stuff like that."

"Yeah a fridge might be good. If you want food and stuff like that…" Troy replied with a smirk on his handsome face.

"Ugh, funny handsome!" Gabby replied sarcastically.

"I try beautiful!" He retorted. Gabby smiled and laughed good-naturedly as she pulled into the parking lot at the diner. They got out and went in to get tables. Again they had to split up four, four, two. Troy and Gabby decided that they wanted to sit outside, while the rest of the gang sat inside. "It's too hot today." Miley complained.

Troy and Gabby ate in a comfortable silence. They sat with their backs to the restaurant. Gabby sat in between Troy's legs as they fed each other and shared little kisses. "It's funny Ella." Troy said finally breaking the silence.

"What's funny?" She asked.

"I've only known you for a few weeks and I feel like I've known you forever." He said, quietly as though he'd disturb the peacefulness of the atmosphere.

"Yeah, thanks by the way." Gabby said looking up at Troy

"For what?" He asked as he smiled down on her

"For being there for me when Andrew was bothering me. It's probably good that I let the police keep my cell phone so he can't call me. I just hope he doesn't find out where I live now." She sighed in apprehension at the thought of Andrew.

"Baby girl, I'm not going to let him hurt you. Even if he does find out where you live. Just remember that Jason, Zeke, Chad, Ryan, and I are all on the third floor. Plus you're living with Sharpay now, and she scares me and I'm a pretty tough guy, and Taylor, Kelsi, and Miley are right next door too." He reassured her

"How did I get so lucky as to snag such an amazing guy like you Troy?" She rhetorically asked

"I don't know, how did you?" Troy asked laughing.

"G-d Bolton, don't let your ego get too big or it might just swallow you whole." She laughed, causing Troy to glare at her and then stick his tongue out at her childishly. "It's good to know how much time you've been spending with Chad." She shot at him. He laughed knowing how true this was. The five couples finished eating and decided that it was time to get the necessities.

"Let's make a list." Taylor suggested strategically. Everyone agreed and she pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.

2 of everything: washer and dryer, fridge, oven, microwave

1 of everything: toaster, vacuum

"I think that's it." Kelsi said, reviewing the list yet again.

"Alright then!" Gabby said, "Let's hit the highway." They all piled in their cars and headed out to Sears, where they could get everything. As soon as they walked in Chad began complaining.

"How much longer do we have to be here?" He whined.

"We just got here and you're already whining. How is that possibly?" Taylor asked incredulously.

"It's Chad." Miley said simply, knowing that explained everything. The group laughed as Chad began pouting like a four year-old.

"Look dude, once we help them with this we'll go shoot some hoops, okay?" Troy said, trying to calm Chad down.

"Do you play?" Zeke asked Ryan.

Ryan nodded, "Not well, but I do play."

"Cool, maybe we'll beat Chad and Troy if you join our team!" Jason cried enthusiastically.

"Never happen." Troy said cockily

"Bolton, that ego of yours is bigger than you are." Gabby joked with him.

"That's why you love me Montez." Troy shot back

"Who said anything about love?" Gabby retorted and with that headed off to where the refrigerators were located. Troy smiled as his girlfriend walked of and quickly caught up with her.

He picked her up and spun her in a circle, "What's this I hear about not loving me Miss Montez?" Troy asked.

Gabby squealed, "Troy put me down this instant!"

"Say you love me!" He demanded.

She thought for a minute and decided she might as well cave for the moment; she'd get him back later, "Fine I love you Troy Alexander Bolton." However, while she was saying this very angry and obsessed Andrew Green was watching them.

"Just you wait Baby G, when the time is right your worst nightmare is going to come to life. Then you'll be all mine because there will be no one left to protect you." With that he stalked out of the store unnoticed by the 10 friends.

The rest of the gang quickly caught up with Troy and Gabby. They all discussed how they were going to pay for everything. They finally decided to put everything on Sharpay and Taylor's accounts. Then Gabby and Kelsi could pay for half of everything. It was also decided that Gabby and Sharpay would keep the vacuum and Kelsi and Taylor would keep the toaster, since they only had one of those at the apartments. "So we need a toaster Pay." Gabby commented, "And we need a vacuum Tay." Kelsi told her.

The girls split up, which was unfortunate for Taylor and Kelsi because they had Jason and Chad. Every five minutes Chad would ask if it was time to leave yet and every two minutes Kelsi was either explaining to Jason what something was or telling him not to touch because he might break it, then they'd have to buy it.

Ryan and Miley floated back and forth between the two groups. "It's really nice that we don't have to go through this." Miley commented.

"Yea, we can mooch off of them when we come back for vacations and stuff." Ryan said, making Miley laugh.

"Yup! The perks of being required to live on campus. It's cool that we were the only two in the country to get this scholarship." She said with a content sigh. Ryan smiled and agreed with her.

Finally after a million years, according to Chad, of shopping, which in reality was only about an hour and a half, they were able to leave. The stuff would be delivered and hooked up the next day, thank G-d.

"After everything is set up we need to go shopping for your apartments. The only stuff you guys have is what Ryan gave ya'll, since he'll be living there during breaks. You guys need furniture." Sharpay said matter-of-factly.

"Crap!" Troy suddenly yelled, "We're stupid, we should've gotten appliances while we were there." Gabby and Sharpay smiled, "What?" Troy asked suspiciously.

"Well, we thought of that already." Gabby said with a smirk

"We went ahead and purchased both of you guys what you needed." Taylor said, "You can repay us when you get the chance. It'll be delivered with our stuff tomorrow."

"Thank you!" The five guys chorused simultaneously. The girls laughed and said "Your welcome!" At the same time too.

When they got back they decided to order a couple of pizzas and chill in Sharpay and Gabby's apartment, which was the official hangout now. They picked out a few movies and began watching. The friends stayed up until about one in the morning watching movie after movie, making tons of memories for themselves in the future.

AN: I hope you liked it, I think this is the longest one I've ever made so yay me! Read and Review!

Mollie XOXO


	13. Chapter 13: The Stupidity of the Human

AN: Sorry for the wait. So I just want to say that peterpan27 gets a ton of credit for this chapter because she gave me ideas for Troy and Miley's relationship. So here it goes lol!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 13: The Stupidity of the Human Race

The next day the Sears people arrived at 9:30 to install everything in the four apartments. The four men moved swiftly from one appliance to the next, even with Jason and Chad driving them nuts. "NO son!" One of them yelled at Jason.

"Why?" Jason asked him, truly confused.

"Because if you stick a knife in the toaster while it's plugged in and on you will electrocute yourself!" He sighed; amazed that someone could be so dumb. (AN: No joke my friend Cameron asked me if she could do that one day and I almost slapped her, I mean she's a freaking genius at school, but seriously she could have killed herself!)

"Oh!" Jason said, as if he understood. Then he turned towards Kelsi, "What's electrocute mean?"

She sighed and patted his head, "Never mind Baby." And she walked away. Jason stood there still confused, but decided to let it go for the moment. A few hours later the Sears people were gone and all four apartments had appliances. The guys still didn't have furniture, though.

" What are you guys doing about furniture?" Taylor asked Chad as they sat down in Gabby and Sharpay's apartment for lunch.

"I fonno fk Roy go Wke." Chad said while eating

"Don't talk with your mouth full, it's rude and we can't understand you." Taylor scolded him.

Chad nodded and once he swallowed his food repeated what he said, "I don't know ask Troy or Zeke."

Troy looked at Chad, "Why are Zeke and I always in charge of everything." Everyone stared at him for a moment. "Dumb question." Troy responded to his own question, all the while throwing looks at Jason and Chad. He sighed and shook his head.

"To answer your question Taylor," Zeke began, "We are going to see what furniture we can take from home, and what we want of that. Once we know we'll go furniture shopping here for whatever we need."

Taylor nodded, "Thank you for answering my question Zeke." She glared at Chad who had stuffed a sandwich, chips, and a chocolate chip cookie in his mouth at once. She shook her head in disgust, "My boyfriend is so gross." She thought, "But he's amazing."

Once they had all eaten, they discussed how they were going to get to Albuquerque. "If we drive, we could bring more back since we're going to have to drive back with ya'll's cars." Gabby reasoned.

"But we'll have to drive back alone." Sharpay argued.

"Not if we don't take all of our cars." Taylor defended Gabby.

"But someone will." Kelsi pointed out.

"Okay I give." Gabby said and Taylor nodded in agreement. Gabriella got on the phone with the airlines and booked 10 tickets for the following evening to Albuquerque, New Mexico. "Thank you." Gabby said as she hung up. "I don't think I've met anyone that clueless in my life." She sighed.

"What happened?" Troy asked as he wrapped his arms securely around her waist.

"She asked me where Albuquerque was. Then when I told her she asked me how far away California was from New Mexico." She just shook her head at the thought of the dumb receptionist. "So I guess we should pack so we're ready to go tomorrow, then we can watch movies or something." Everyone agreed and went to their respective apartments to begin packing for the adventure to Albuquerque.

When everyone got back they began arguing over what to watch. "Let's watch The Ring." Chad suggested with a devious smile.

"NO!" All five girls said at the same time. An argument proceeded between the girls and the guys.

"I want to watch A Walk to Remember!" Miley whined

"Miley don't whine, it's not an attractive quality on you." Troy said sternly.

"But Trooooooooooy." Miley continued whining.

"Maybe we should give?" Gabby suggested, giving the girls a "play along with me" look.

"Yeah I guess we could." The other four conceded.

"Yeah, Troy…" Gabby said in a seductive voice, "I guess we could watch your movie." She ran her hands down his chest. "Since you won't watch our movie…" She added a slight pout on her lips as she looked at him with her big brown eyes.

Troy began shaking at her touch. "Fine, we can watch A Walk to Remember." He sighed admitting defeat. All the guys groaned and gave him death glares.

"YAAAAAAAAAAY!" Miley began jumping up and down dancing around all the guys singing, "We won! Ya'll lost! HAHAHA!" She continued dancing and singing as Gabby, Sharpay, Taylor, and Kelsi doubled over in fits of laughter and the guys just stood there very annoyed.

"Miley Destiny Hope Cole!" Troy suddenly yelled, causing everyone to pay strict attention to him. "Stop yelling, singing, and jumping! We know ya'll won! Don't make me take my decision back!"

"Miley Destiny Hope Cole?" Ryan asked with a laugh.

"Troy Alexander Bolton! You weren't supposed to tell anyone!" She yelled as she began chasing him around the room causing the girls to laugh until they were crying. They guys, however, were laughing at Miley's name. Despite knowing her for forever Chad and Jason did not know her full name. Zeke, on the other hand, stood quietly with a smirk on his face.

"Dude, why aren't you laughing?" Chad managed to gasp out.

"It's more fun just watching you guys. Besides I knew her full name anyways. What did ya'll think it was?" Zeke responded with the same smirk playing on his lips.

"I knew her middle name was Hope, but Destiny Hope, that's hilarious!" Chad cracked up again.

Miley stopped chasing Troy for a minute. "How in G-d's name did you know my entire middle name?" She screamed

"Troy." Zeke stated pointing at Troy who cringed, knowing exactly what was going to happen next.

"TROY ALEXANDER BOLTON YOU ARE SO DEAD WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!!" She screamed loudly and began to chase him again.

Suddenly there was a banging on the floor. "What was that?" Kelsi asked. The banging continued and Kelsi finally realized what it was, "Someone is banging on their ceiling to make us be quiet." She laughed

"But why would they bang on their ceiling?" Jason asked, "And how would they reach it?" Everyone groaned and didn't answer his question. They all laughed when they heard a man scream: "Keep quiet kids." through the floor.

"As much fun as it is watching you try to kill Troy," Gabby began, "why don't we just put in the movie?" Everyone nodded and Gabby slipped it into the DVD player and they all snuggled up to watch the sad movie excited about the adventure to Albuquerque the following day.

The next day the friends woke up scattered around Gabby and Sharpay's apartment. "Let's go grab breakfast?" Sharpay suggested before everyone headed off to their respective apartments to get dressed for the day.

They met 30 minutes later in Sharpay and Gabby's apartment to go grab some breakfast at a little café they had discovered they could walk to from their apartments. Once they were all seated and had ordered their food they began to discuss their plans for the day.

"Well, our flight leaves at 11 tonight so we need to be at the airport at like 9:30 or so." Gabby said

"It takes about 45 minutes to get to the airport so we need to leave at 8:15, there shouldn't be any traffic." Taylor pointed out.

"Oh and we should call cabs now so they can be waiting for us at 8:15." Troy said as he pulled out his cell phone to call the cab company. Once he set it up to have 5 cabs meet them he hung up and turned to the group. "Done, oh and Ella we should probably get you a new phone with a new number. I'd feel better if you had one on you."

"That's a good idea, especially since we aren't setting up land lines in our apartments. We can just use our cells, makes more since anyways." Ella replied.

After everyone ate they made their way to the AT&T store to pick up a new phone for Gabby. "What kind of phone do you want?" The man asked in a monotone voice.

"The iPhone." Gabby replied, it was the phone she used to have and she loved it. After a "billion years" of waiting, according to Chad, they finally left, Gabby with a new phone in hand.

They got to their apartments and decided to bring all their stuff into the girl's apartment (AN: That's Sharpay and Gabby's apartment) to wait for the cabs to arrive. They quickly dropped the dogs off at a dog kennel they found. They were planning on being away for about a week. They then went back to the apartment where they turned on the TV and the girls began to make sandwiches for lunch. At 1, they all sat down around the apartment to eat as they watched re-runs of Friends, much to the guys' dismay.

As Chad and Jason became more and more bored with Ross and Rachel fighting over some stupid letter that Rachel wrote at the beach, Chad quietly pulled out his Motorola Q and scrolled through his contacts list until he found what he was looking for. He turned his phone on speaker phone and let it ring, everyone turned to see Chad and Jason grinning mischeiviously. "What are you guys doing?" Taylor asked warily.

"Shhhhh!" Chad instructed, suddenly someone picked up on the other end.

"Hello? Sharon are these phones supposed to work? I thought they were just display phones for the store to show off?" A confused voice asked someone apparently named Sharon. Chad quietly hung up the phone and he and Jason began laughing hysterically.

"Did you guys call a phone at the sprint store?" Zeke as increduoulsy.

Jason and Chad nodded proudly, only to receive slaps on the back of the head from their girlfriends. "OWWW!" They both said at the same time.

"Kelsiiiiiii" Jason whined, "You never hit me, why'd you do it now?" He looked at her with sad and confused brown eyes.

Kelsi almost caved into his sweet and innocent look, but caught herself, she was going to have to remain strong around him because he was so cute! "Jason sweetheart, you can't do things like that. It bothers the people in the AT&T store. Just leave it alone, I only hit you to teach you a lesson. Okay baby?" She smiled. Jason nodded and gave her a sweet peck on the lips.

The couples channel surfed for a little while longer and before they knew it, it was 8:10 and they began to drag their stuff out to the curb so they could get into the waiting cabs to head off to their airport. Once they got there they checked all of their stuff in and went to wait at the gate for their flight to be called.

"Taylor!" Chad whined, "I'm bored. When are we going to leave? When are we going to get there? How much longer?"

Taylor stared at him in disbelief. "We haven't even left yet and he's asking 'how much longer' and 'when are we going to get there'?" She asked the entire gate.

The group laughed, well except for Chad who didn't find any of this a bit amusing. "Why do you guys always pick on me and Jason?" He asked them.

"Dude," Ryan began, "you guys set yourselves up for this."

"Ryan," Sharpay said in a very serious voice., "don't say 'dude' again." Ryan blushed and nodded.

"It's okay Ry-Ry, I think it's cute." Miley said, using her new nickname for him.

Finally their flight was called and they boarded the plane ready to set out for Albuquerque, New Mexico and for the new adventures that would await them.

AN: Okay again I'm sorry for not updating in a while and yes there will be drama in the next chapter so don't worry! And thanks again to peterpan27 for her help in this episode. The part about Miley Destiny Hope Cole was mostly her idea lol! Read and Review. Oh and I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written, so I'm getting better at this!

Mollie XOXO


	14. Author's Note

Author's Note:

Okay first I want to apologize. I guess I kind of spoiled you guys with my updating basically everyday of either one or multiple stories. I now have a lot going on, but the good news is my dad's surgery went phenomenally and he is now back at home driving us crazy lol! So I'm going to try to update at least one story a day from now on. But fair warning: this will really kick in on Friday, after my last A.P. exam is done (Euro! Yuck!) My schedule will be pretty hectic though for the next two weeks. I graduate on the 17th and after that summer all the way until AFTER Labor Day when I begin my first semester as a freshman in college (yeah I'm really freaked out by that thought). So basically, I'm going to try to update daily, but this might not happen until after Friday the 9th. My excuse is that school's been INSANE lately and I really don't know how to have senioritis, so I can't not work. Plus the stuff with my dad's been a little crazy, and graduation is really stressful because of all the crap that comes along with it. Anyways, the next chapter of Life at EHS will be up tonight. Last night a new chapter of A New Life was posted. So enjoy!

Mollie XOXO


	15. Chapter 14: Airport Experience

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 14: Airport Experience

The group landed in Albuquerque, New Mexico completely exhausted. They made their way to the baggage claim and were waiting for their luggage to come on the caracal. Out of nowhere a shot was fired and before they could react a gun was pointed to Gabriella's head.

Kelsi's Perspective:

We landed at like 6 a.m. I really don't know why we take these red eyes; we're always exhausted when we land. Oh well, whatever we're a bunch of crazy kids. We disembarked the plane and made our way to where our stuff was supposed to be waiting for us.

We were sitting on the edge of the caracal next to where out luggage would flow through at any moment, well hopefully, you never can really tell with airports these days. Anyways, we were sitting there when we suddenly heard a gunshot. We all jumped up and began looking around. Jason grabbed me and held me close, to protect me. Even though he can be so stupid, he's so sweet. Suddenly Gabs let out a whimper. We turned to see Troy pale as a ghost and Andrew holding a gun to Gabs head.

Sharpay let out an ear-shattering scream the moment she saw the gun. Everyone in the airport was staring at us. I tugged at Jason's hand, "Jason what do we do?" I asked as tears began to build up in my eyes, threatening to fall down my face.

"It's gonna be okay." Jason whispered soothingly in my ear.

"Quiet!" Andrew screamed, momentarily taking the gun away from Gabs head to motion towards Jason and me.

Jason pulled me closer to him, if that was possible. We just stood like that as we watched the terrifying scene unfold before us.

I watched as Gabs ran to Troy when she realized she was no longer the target. Then Troy leapt at Andrew. They struggled as Jason pushed me behind him. There was another gunshot, and another scream courtesy or Sharpay and then there were police and everything got calmer as I shakily tried to give the police my report.

Jason's Perspective:

We got off the airplane. I was dizzy as usual, I don't really like airplanes. The flight took forever too, I don't know why, it doesn't look like California and New Mexico are that far apart, but no one would talk to me about it, they just told me not to worry, like always.

Kelsi's very nice to me. Sharpay can be kind of…I don't know, not mean just, short or something like that. I don't know what Zeke sees in her, oh well, she can be funny!

So we finally headed to where they put the luggage for us to get. Those things are really cool, they spin in circles. Ohhh I bet they'd be fun to ride…I wonder if I'd get in trouble for doing that…hmmm that sounds like good idea. Wait, what was it Kelsi told me? Oh yeah, if I think it sounds like a good idea I should ask her first because it might not be a good idea after all.

We all sat down on the cool spinner. I turned towards Kelsi to ask her if I could ride the spinning machine when I heard a really loud noise. I pulled Kelsi closer to me because she began to look around worriedly. Briella suddenly whimpered. I looked over at her and that freak Andrew had a gun pointed at her. Then Sharpay let out a really loud scream, I guess she saw the gun, or maybe she thinks it would be fun to ride the spinning thing and wants to get on? I want a cookie…oh no some of Zeke's cake…yeah, that's what I want.

"Jason, what do we do?" Kelsi asked me, she looked like she was going to cry.

"It's gonna be okay." I whispered. She really needed to be quiet because the scary man has a gun.

"Quiet!" Okay, that was Andrew screaming. He pulled the gun away from Briella's head and I pulled Kelsi closer, I don't want her to get shot. Briella ran towards Troy, and Troy ran towards Andrew. I pushed Kelsi behind me as another gunshot echoed through the airport. Then Sharpay screamed AGAIN and then there were police. I looked towards Zeke and there was blood coming out of his arm. It actually looked really cool.

Taylor's Perspective:

So we FINALLY landed in Albuquerque. Our plane was late to leave California, but we're finally here in one piece. We decided to make our way over to the luggage caracal to wait for our luggage, which would hopefully all be there. I really want to go crawl in a bed and Chad hasn't shut up during the entire trip.

"Taylor, when will we get to the hotel?" He asked me. The idiot we need our luggage, how the hell am I supposed to know?

"I don't know Chad, we have no luggage. Why don't you ask Troy" I sighed, I can't believe I just pawned my boyfriend off to Troy, oh well, it's someone else's turn to deal with him.

When we got to where our luggage was supposed to be I sat down on the caracal and everyone else followed suit except for Troy and Gabby, they were whispering and stealing kisses. They're so cute. Sharpay and I shared a knowing look. Suddenly there was a loud sound, "That sounds like a gun shot." I mumbled to no one in particular.

Gabby whimpered quietly and Sharpay screamed loudly as I turned to face Andrew, with a gun pointed straight at Gabby's head. "Oh my G-d Chad, do something." I whispered.

"Quiet!" Andrew yelled, I didn't realize he could hear me. He suddenly pulled the gun away from Gabby's head to gesture towards us. I froze when it passed over me…

At some point in time Gabby had run off to Troy and Troy had made a move towards Andrew. Andrew and Troy began to struggle when the gun went off. My idiot boyfriend tossed me onto the caracal, which was moving, and I went off as Sharpay let out another scream.

Chad's Perspective:

We got off the airplane and I began to dribble my basketball. I could tell that Tay was getting slightly annoyed. "Taylor when will we get to the hotel?" I asked her, she told me to ask Troy.

I went to ask him, but he and Hot Stuff were being all couply and gushy….yuck….Troy turned to face me, I guess he knew I was looking at them.

"What Chad?" He sighed, I could tell he wasn't happy with me interrupting them.

"Nothing" and I fell into step with Taylor once again. I began to wonder where we were going and why we weren't going to the hotel. Oh yeah, Taylor said something about luggage. Oh the spinning machines…cool….

Once we got there we sat down on them, well except for Troy and Hot Stuff, they were still wrapped up in each other, so gross. Then there was a loud noise. A shot to be precise. Yes I know a thing or two about guns, my uncle hunts. I wrapped an arm around Taylor's waist, although I don't think she noticed. She turned her attention towards Hot Stuff.

Then there was a scream. Ouch Sharpay screamed while she was sitting right next to me…I looked at Hot Stuff and that Andrew guy had a gun pointed at her head.

"Oh my G-d, Chad do something." Taylor whispered

I was going to respond when Andrew yelled, "Quiet!" and motioned the gun towards us, I froze when it passed over Taylor, afraid he would shoot her.

Hot Stuff ran to Troy, trying to get away from her worst nightmare, Andrew. Troy, of course always the hero, ran to Andrew and tried to get the gun away from him. Of course the gun went off. Instinctively I pushed Taylor onto the moving caracal. As she went off, very angrily I might add, I looked towards Zeke to see blood gushing from his arm. Soon there were police and a lot more noise and I just went to get Taylor.

Miley's Perspective:

Well the flight was nice and quick. Ryan and I had a good time telling stories about our friends. Of course all of the stories were mocking them! Well, when we got off Chad was complaining as usual. I watched as Taylor tried to pass him off to Troy, it didn't work though, because Troy and Gabs were all over each other. They're a little too big on public displays of affection.

"Ryan, is Gabs always this… showy with all her boyfriends?" I asked

"Gem?" I nodded my response, "Actually, come to think of it, no. She never shows public displays of affection. Well, until now obviously. What about Troy?" Ryan asked me. I shook my head no in response.

We finally made it to where our luggage was and I followed Taylor's lead and sat down on the caracal. I was leaning on Ryan's shoulder; really tired actually, I guess all these airplane rides have finally gotten to me. Suddenly there was a loud noise. It was definitely a gunshot. I'm really from Tennessee and I know a gunshot when I hear one. I turned when I heard Gabs whimper slightly. When I looked slightly over her head I cam face to face with Andrew.

I clung tightly to Ryan as Andrew kept the gun trained at Gabs head. Troy was shaking; he didn't know what to do. Taylor, whom I was sitting next to, whispered something to Chad. Although, it was so quiet I couldn't hear what she said.

"Quiet!" I guess Andrew heard what she said. He motioned towards us with the gun and it scared me to death. I was afraid he was going to shoot someone.

My fear was right, when Gabs ran to Troy, Troy attacked Andrew and another shot went off. I flinched as it hit Zeke who got Sharpay out of the line of fire just in time. I began to sob underneath Ryan as the medics ran to Zeke and the police dragged a fuming Andrew away.

Ryan's Perspective:

That was the best plane ride I've ever been on, from California to New Mexico. Miley and I had probably too much fun. We told tons of embarrassing stories about our friends. It's really funny that we're both the odd man, well in her case, odd woman out. I'm the only guy in my group and she's the only girl. Boy does she have some interesting stories about Chad and Jason.

We got off the plane and made our way to the baggage claim and Taylor sat down on the caracal so we all did, well except for Gem and Troy. They have been really touchy feely. It's cute though, Miles commented on it earlier, but you know I'm really happy for Gem, she's always had a tough time with trusting guys other than me, and I am not and have never been interested in her that way.

Anyhow, we were just sitting there when there was this really loud noise. I didn't know for sure, but I guessed it was a gunshot. Miley basically moved herself on top of me after she heard it. I leaned down to ask her if she was okay when she started to point a shaky finger at Gem. Andrew was holding a gun to her head and Troy looked completely helpless. Now someone must have said something because Andrew yelled:

"Quiet!" and began to point the gun in our direction. I began to edge Miley behind me as Gem ran away from Andrew. Troy then attacked Andrew. Before I knew it there was another gunshot and I pulled Miley completely out of the way. Apparently Zeke got hit by the bullet cause the medics were all over him when the police swarmed us.

Sharpay's Perspective:

The plane ride was nice. I took a nice nap on Zeke's shoulder, and his head was on mine as he was also sleeping. I really like him, he's super patient with me and he understands me like Boo does. I didn't think that was possible, I thought she would be the only one to get me. As the plane landed Boo leaned forward from the seat behind me and shook my shoulder. "Pay, we're here", she quietly told me.

I nodded my response and began to shake Zeke. When he didn't move I began to pepper little kisses on his face, which woke him up. "Baby we're here." He nodded his thanks and we all prepared for the landing.

When we stepped out of the terminal we quickly made our way to baggage claim. Taylor went and sat on the caracal and Chad, Kelsi, Jason, Miley, and Ryan followed her lead. I made no attempt to sit on the metal thing because it looked dirty. Zeke sat down and pulled me into his lap.

"Now you don't have to get your nice skirt dirty Baby Shar." He smiled at me and gave me an affectionate kiss on the nose. I giggled my response and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. I heard Boo giggled and turned my attention to her and Troy. They were so cute. Taylor and I of course passed a look about how cute they were. But, I decided it was more worthwhile to pay attention to my gorgeous boyfriend. As Zeke and I sat there flirting there was a really loud noise that made me jump and grab a hold of Zeke.

He motioned towards Boo and Troy, so I turned to look. What I saw scared the hell out of me. Andrew was holding a gun to my Boo's head. I made a move to get up and kick the crap out of Andrew, but Zeke held onto my waist tightly. Someone must have said something because Andrew screamed "Quiet!" and began to point the gun at all of us.

Zeke gripped me tighter and attempted to maneuver me behind him so I was out of the line of fire, but I firmly tried to remain in my place. The last thing I wanted was him to get shot.

Boo ran to Troy when she realized the gun wasn't trained at her head anymore and Troy jumped onto Andrew. They fought for dominance when a the gun went off. Before I knew it I was under Zeke and a bullet hit him in the shoulder. I screamed, afraid that he'd been hurt really badly. Finally there were cops and people and I couldn't really comprehend what was going on anymore, I was just worried about Zeke.

Zeke's Perspective:

About 10 minutes after we took off Baby Shar was asleep on my shoulder. As I listened to her rhythmic breathing I began to drift off and decided to lay my head on hers. I must have slept the entire flight because before I knew it I felt light kisses all over my face. I opened my eyes to find Shar smiling down at me, "Baby we're here." She told me in her melodic voice. I nodded a response and got ready for the landing, which was coming.

We finally got off the plane and made our way to where our luggage was supposed to be. I watched as Taylor tried to get rid of Chad who had apparently been complaining the entire flight, how odd, not. When we got to the baggage claim everyone sat down on the edge of the caracal except Sharpay, Troy and Brie. Troy and Brie were flirting in their own little world, but Shar just didn't want to get her clothes dirty. I sat down and pulled her in my lap.

"Now you don't have to get your nice skirt dirty Baby Shar." I smiled at my nickname for her and gave her a peck on the nose. She giggled that sweet giggle that I've grown to love and gave me a peck on the lips. Sharpay turned her attention to Taylor and "Troyella" as I've deemed Troy and Brie. I was staring out the window when I heard a gunshot.

Shar jumped about a foot off my lap and held onto me for dear life. I held her close and motioned towards Brie. A gun was being pointed to her head as Troy looked on helplessly. I kept trying to get Shar behind me, but she was resisting. I don't think she knew what I was trying to do. I don't want her to get shot; I'd rather take the bullet myself.

Once the gun was away from her head Brie ran towards Troy, who, in turn, lunged at Andrew. They fought for control of the gun when it went off. I pushed Sharpay under me as a bullet grazed my left shoulder. The pain was awful in both my shoulder and ear as Shar screamed my name in fear.

Before I knew it medics and police were all around and Andrew was under control as my shoulder was being bandaged.

Troy's Perspective:

During the flight Ella and I talked quietly about nothing in particular, just enjoying each other's company. When we were about 15 minutes away from New Mexico I woke her up from her sleep. She drifted off for about 30 minutes. Once she was up she leaned forward to wake Sharpay up.

We finally got off and led the group to the baggage claim. I guess Chad was bothering Taylor because she sent him up to me. I guess when we were being all couply he decided to leave us alone and moved back to Tay.

Once we got to the baggage claim everyone sat down, except for Ella and Me. We stood off to the side talking. "I really want you to meet my parents Ella. Even if they're not a huge part of my life, I'd like them to meet you."

"Well, I want to meet them too Troy." Suddenly a sad look came into her eyes.

"Hey, baby girl. It's okay, your parents would be really proud of you." I said soothingly. She nodded her response and pulled away from my embrace. She went to reach down into her bag. Suddenly there was gunshot. I froze just in time to see Andrew pointing a gun at Ella's head.

Ella let out a whimper and looked at me for help. I just stood there as Andrew dared me to make a move with his eyes. "Quiet!" he yelled, he quickly tore the gun away from Ella's head and gestured towards our friends. That was my chance…

Ella ran behind me and I jumped Andrew. We struggled for a few seconds before the gun went off again and Sharpay screamed. Out of nowhere a dozen cops showed up with a medics and everything began to calm down once more.

Gabriella's Perspective:

Once we boarded the plane Troy and I took our seats behind Pay and Zeke. After talking for awhile I guess I drifted off to sleep. Soon I was woken up by Troy who told me we were getting ready to land in 15 minutes. I nodded my response and leaned forward to wake up Pay. "Pay we're here." I quietly told her. She nodded to me and I watched as she woke Zeke up.

"I've never seen her so…smitten…with someone before." I whispered to Troy who didn't respond. I guess he was thinking about other things. Once we disembarked I began to get a funny feeling. I felt like something bad was going to happen to me, or one of us. Oh G-d, Andrew, I could suddenly feel his presence. I shook off the feeling and tried to keep a steady conversation with Troy going. I noticed Chad come up out of the corner of my eye, but then he moved back to an annoyed looking Taylor.

Once we got to the baggage claim everyone sat down except for me and Troy. Troy was talking about me meeting his parents. I was only half listening. I was really distracted by a man standing off to the right of us. I felt he was watching me, there was something eerily familiar about him.

I realized that I needed to respond to Troy, "I want to meet them too Troy." I went to reach in my bag for my pepper spray; yes I carry that around since Andrew started stalking me. Even with five strong guys around I wanted to have it in my hand. Suddenly there was a really loud sound, a gun if I wasn't mistaken. As I went to stand up I felt the cold barrel of a gun on my scalp. I dropped pepper spray and it landed next to my feet. I looked at Troy helplessly as he kept his eyes trained on Andrew. Even though I couldn't see the gunman, I knew it was Andrew.

"Quiet!" He yelled and pointed the gun over to my friends. Once the gun was away from me I quickly ducked behind Troy and watched as he threw himself at Andrew. The gun went off again and all the guys pushed the girls out of the way.

"ZEKE!!" Pay screamed, I think he's been hit. Suddenly cops began to surround us as the chaos died down.

Nobody's Perspective:

When the gun moved away from Gabby's head she swiftly moved towards Troy. Troy threw her behind him and jumped onto Andrew. The gun went off again. Zeke pulled Sharpay underneath him and the bullet grazed his left shoulder slightly. He winced as Sharpay screamed, "ZEKE!!" Chad on the other hand had tossed Taylor on the caracal, which was slowly, but surely, moving.

Soon cops swarmed around the group of teens and had Andrew under control. An ambulance was called and a medic looked at Zeke's shoulder.

"You're lucky son." One of them replied, "The bullet grazed your arm, but didn't go in, all we need to do is bandage you up." This was quickly done and Zeke was soon able to wrap a hysterical Sharpay in his arms once more.

Gabby began shaking the moment Troy lunged himself at Andrew. She was so afraid that someone was going to get shot, and Zeke was, only he was okay. Troy wrapped his arms around Gabby and began to whisper sweet things in her ear, trying to calm her down. Soon she was quietly sobbing in his arms as a shaky Kelsi tried to fill out the police report.

Chad had made his way down to the end of the caracal to help Taylor off. "Of all places to throw me when you hear a gunshot, a moving caracal." She then threw her arms around his neck as she sobbed into his chest.

"I'm afraid we're going to need all of your statements." One of the officers replied. One by one the teens told the story of their airport experience.


	16. Yet Another Author's Note

Hey everyone it's me, Mollie. I know I'm a terrible person for not updating like promised, I guess I didn't realize what graduating really entailed. Rehearsals, parties, writing thank you notes (something I should be doing now…). Anyways, graduation along with being really sick, which I am now, is why I haven't updated lately. But I'm going to start today. I'm not sure which story, but at least ONE story will be updated today. That I promise you guys. Thanks for putting up with me, I'm not really sure why ya'll do, I sure wouldn't. Anyways, I love you all!

Mollie XOXO


	17. Chapter 15: The End of One Adventure

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 15: The End to One Adventure, the Beginning to a New One

Once the group gave the police their statements they hailed 5 taxis and began to make their way back to their respective houses. As soon as they got home they all took showers and climbed into bed ready for a good nights sleep. None of them woke up until the following morning. Once they had all contacted each other they made plans to meet up for breakfast at a diner that they fearsome five some frequented.

"Does anyone know what furniture they can take with them?" Miley asked the group in general.

"Troy can take anything from his bedroom and the playroom." Gabby responded.

"How do you know?" Troy demanded

"I talked to your mom on the phone this morning. She called and it woke me up so I answered. We actually talked for about an hour. Anyways, she said anything that you guys need just charge to your dad's account. She said that went for all of you guys. I guess your parents were all sitting in the room." Gabby explained.

Once breakfast was done they went their separate ways and decided to see how much they would want from each of their houses. So, one by one they made their way to their houses, choosing what they wanted to take. Once that was chosen, Troy called the moving company and made an appointment for the next day.

"Let's have some lunch and then start to pack up." Kelsi suggested, "After all the movers are coming at 3 tomorrow and we want to be ready for them."

"Yeah, we really should get back to L.A. as soon as possible." Zeke stated. They all agreed on a little sandwich shop and from there went to buy packing boxes.

Once they entered the U-haul store Chad and Jason began to wander around by themselves, "What does this do?" Jason asked as he picked up a staple gun off the counter.

"I don't know Jase." Chad replied, he then held out his hand, "Try it on me!" he suggested jumping up and down. Unfortunately no one was paying them any mind, suddenly a scream echoed through the store. All eight friends looked at each other.

"Where are Jason and Chad?" Taylor asked.

"Great just great!" Sharpay sighed as they went running to the workers counter in the back of the store. There, Chad was bleeding with a staple in his hand. Jason was the culprit holding the staple gun.

"What the HELL are you guys doing?" Kelsi screamed as she grabbed the gun away from Jason.

"He told me to." Jason said pointing a finger at Chad, who was being cradled by Taylor as one of the U-haul employees was working the staple out of his hand.

"That's what she said." Ryan joked, only to get slapped by Miley. "What?" he asked innocently.

"Not the time for she said jokes." Miley scolded him, although a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

Finally Chad's hand was bandaged up and the 10 teens were making their ways to their cars. "Never play with staple guns." Taylor was lecturing Chad.

"Never listen to Chad or play with things that you don't know anything about." Kelsi was lecturing Jason.

"Oh they are and interesting pair." Gabby commented to Troy.

"Let's just say that things are never boring with those two around." Troy replied with a smile.

"That's an understatement!" Zeke exclaimed from across the parking lot as he opened the door of his black Audi TT Roadster for Sharpay.

"Thanks baby." She smiled as she slipped into the front seat of his little car.

Once everyone was home with their boxes they began to pack up their stuff for college and what they figured was a permanent move to Los Angeles, California. The next few hours at each house were insane. As the couples and the butlers and maids tried to get everything possible packed away. Finally at 8:30, they all called it quits. Everyone met at Troy's house and a pizza was ordered. They decided on 5 movies and pulled them out ready for a relaxing night. The police had taken Andrew off, they promised that he wouldn't get off for "good behavior" this time.

The next day came and everyone went back to his or her houses since they had all crashed at Troy's. The teens began packing up the cars when the moving vans came into view at 3 on the dot. First they loaded up Troy's house, then Zeke's, the Chad's, then Jason's, and finally Miley's. Everything managed to fit into two vans.

"That was a feat." Gabby replied dropping into a nearby bench. Everyone agreed and went to sit down in Miley's front lawn. "I guess we should get plane tickets and head back home." Gabby replied with a smile.

"What are you smiling about Ella?" Troy asked, tickling her slightly. She giggled as Sharpay responded.

"Home, L.A. is now home." Everyone sat in silence for a few minutes, just thinking about how everything they knew was being left behind for a new adventure. An adventure that was to take place in L.A., specifically at UCLA.

"Hey, who knows what's in store for us?" Ryan said with an excited grin. Everyone nodded their agreement.

"At least Andrew's not." Gabby sighed contentedly.

"And all those people we called friends." Kelsi commented.

"No more being forgotten, or put in last place." Taylor smiled.

"Okay enough with the sentimental crap!" Chad screamed jumping around. "I need food and caffeine! I'm SO tired." He continued to jump as Taylor rolled her eyes.

"Let's feed the idiot here and then head home." She suggested.

"Yeah, we've got the whole summer to chill until school starts." Zeke said. With that everyone headed out to their cars.

TWO MONTHS LATER

The gang had been doing their regular thing all summer: runs, the beach, shopping, movies, eating, sleeping. Now it is time for school to start. They began to get more stuff in the mail about classes and they were preparing for orientation. They were also packing up Miley and Ryan's stuff so that they could move into the theatre dorms for their scholarship.

They all stepped on campus with their friends' bags and boxes. "Ready to move again?" Sharpay jokingly asked her twin brother.

"For this adventure?" Sharpay nodded "Yeah." He answered

"We've been chilling and doing nothing all summer, I think it's time for something new." Miley said jumping up and down all the while leading her friends towards the dorm hall.

"Well, she's right about one thing." Gabby replied.

"What's that Hot Stuff?" Chad asked, bobbing his curly head up and down as he walked to some beat in his head.

"It's time for a new adventure." Gabby giggled.

"Well here it is." Troy said looking around at the campus that was much bigger that East High.

"In the form of college!" Sharpay squealed excitedly.

"Ready, set, go!" Zeke laughed. Everyone laughed ready for their lives to take them on different journeys now.

AN: Okay so that's it for L.A. Adventures I think. But I think I'm going to make a sequel. I don't really care if ya'll don't want one, I've got lots of ideas, but they just don't fit under this story. So I hop ya'll enjoyed this. I think I'll put the first one out tonight since I'm on a roll with these characters. Review please!

Mollie XOXO


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